Free Republic

Senator Barack Obama fought back Saturday against accusations from his rivals that he had displayed a profound misunderstanding of small-town values, in a flare-up that left him on the defensive before a series of primaries that could test his ability to win over white voters in economically distressed communities. For a second day, Mr. Obama sought to explain his remarks at a recent San Francisco fund-raiser that small-town Pennsylvania voters, bitter over their economic circumstances, “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them” as a way to explain their frustrations. Acknowledging Saturday that “I didn’t...

<p>You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them...And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.</p>

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., shakes hands at a rally at the Adams Center at the University of Montana in Missoula, Mont., Saturday, April 5, 2008 Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., right, reaches over the crowd to take Natalie Pankratz-Osborn 8 months, from Missoula, at a rally at the Adams Center at the University of Montana in Missoula, Mont., Saturday, April 5, 2008 Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., grabs some fries at the M & M Cafe in Butte, Mont., Saturday, April 5, 2008. Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., kisses Athena Mayahin-Barrett...