Barack Obama
called into question Hillary Rodham Clinton's opposition to
free trade agreements on Monday, intensifying his attacks on
his rival for the Democratic presidential nomination
as he sought to detract from his remarks that
threatened to cost him crucial votes among working-class
voters.
The two
presidential candidates continued to hammer each other
Monday after a weekend of criticism stemming from
Obama's comment that some small-town voters are bitter
over their economic circumstances and ''cling to guns
and religion'' as a result.
Obama uttered the
words at a private fundraiser in San Francisco last
week and Clinton has seized on them in seeking the edge in
Pennsylvania, which holds its primary April 22.
Sen. John McCain
joined in the attack Monday in a speech at The
Associated Press annual meeting in Washington.
''I would like to
respond briefly to the comments one of my opponents
made the other day about the psychology and political
mind-set of Americans living in small towns and other
areas that have experienced the loss of industrial
jobs.''
The Arizona
senator looked back to members of the Depression-era
generation in the United States and said: ''Their
(religious) faith had given generations of their
families purpose and meaning, as it does today. And
their appreciation of traditions like hunting was based in
nothing other than their contribution to the enjoyment of
life.''
With eight days
remaining in the fierce battle for Democratic votes in
Pennsylvania -- an economically hard-hit northeastern state
that holds the biggest remaining primary -- Obama
criticized the former first lady on the North American
Free Trade Agreement and the pending Colombian trade
deal. Opponents of the free-trade pacts claim they cost
American jobs.
NAFTA went into
force while Bill Clinton was president; the Colombia pact
is backed by the former president and Clinton was forced to
demote her chief strategist last week for working with
the Colombian government to support the treaty's
passage in Congress
''Around election
time, the candidates can't do enough for you,'' Obama
said. ''They'll promise you anything, give you a long list
of proposals and even come around, with TV crews in
tow, to throw back a shot and a beer.''
Clinton did that
at a stop Saturday at Bronko's restaurant in Crown
Point, Indiana, on Saturday.
Obama was
speaking to the Alliance for American Manufacturing.
The two rivals
had battled through the week with some of the toughest
rhetoric of the presidential campaign.
Seeking to
overcome Obama's advantage nationwide in delegates and
popular vote, Clinton called the first-term Illinois
senator an elitist after disclosure of remarks he made
at a San Francisco fundraiser that suggested
working-class people are bitter about their economic
circumstances and ''cling to guns and religion'' as a
result.
Obama, who would
be the first African-American president, retorted that
Clinton is insincere and that her stated concerns for
working class voters in states like Pennsylvania are a
sham. The state's April 22 primary is seen as a
must-win for Clinton, a senator from New York.
On Sunday, Obama
reiterated his regret for his choice of words at the
fundraiser but suggested they had been twisted and
mischaracterized by critics, including Clinton.
''She knows
better. Shame on her. Shame on her,'' Obama told an audience
at a union hall here Sunday.
Obama noted that
Clinton seemed much more interested in guns since he
made his comments than she had in the past.
''She is running
around talking about how this is an insult to sportsmen,
how she values the Second Amendment,'' Obama said, referring
to the U.S. Constitution amendment that covers gun
ownership rights.
''Hillary Clinton
is out there like she's on the duck blind every Sunday.
She's packing a six-shooter. Come on, she knows better.
That's some politics being played by Hillary
Clinton,'' he said.
Clinton has told
campaign audiences that she supports the rights of
hunters. Saturday, she reminisced about learning to shoot on
family vacations in Scranton, where her father grew
up. She's also said she once shot a duck in Arkansas,
where she served as first lady.
Clinton, who is
trailing Obama in the popular vote and pledged delegates,
has pounded Obama since Friday, when audio from his San
Francisco appearance was posted on The Huffington Post
Web site.
At the San
Francisco fundraiser, Obama tried to explain his troubles in
winning over some working-class voters, saying they have
become frustrated with economic conditions: ''It's not
surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns
or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like
them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as
a way to explain their frustrations.''
Campaigning in
Scranton on Sunday, Clinton denounced those remarks yet
again as ''elitist and divisive'' and suggested they would
alienate voters in Pennsylvania and other states
holding primaries in the coming weeks.
''Senator Obama
has not owned up to what he said and taken accountability
for it,'' she told reporters during an informal news
conference outside a home.
According to the
latest AP tally, Obama leads Clinton in the convention
delegate count 1,639-1,503, including superdelegates --
party elders and elected officials who can vote for
whichever candidate they chose, regardless of the
popular vote in state primaries and caucuses.
Neither candidate
will be able to clinch the 2,025 delegates needed to
win the nomination without the approval of superdelegates.
Obama planned to
further address the question of which candidate was most
in touch with middle-class voters when he speaks at the
afternoon session of the AP annual meeting. (Steven
Hurst, AP)