April 12, 2008 10:28 AM
- Text
Clinton to Hit Obama's "Bitter" Comments In Indiana Speech
(CBS)
From CBS News' Fernando Suarez:
INDIANAPOLIS -- Hillary Clinton is expected to go after Barak Obama at a speech in Indiana today on remarks he made at a San Francisco fundraiser where he said that middle class Americans are "bitter" about the current situation in the economy. A source close to the campaign told reporters Clinton will "hit Obama hard" on his comments, trying to make the point that middle class Americans are not bitter and that they don't "cling to guns or religion" because they are bitter, but rather because they are law abiding citizens who own guns and middle class Americans choose to worship because they believe in their faith.
Obama told a small group of fundraisers this week that "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. 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 going to regenerate and they have not."
Clinton's visit to an industrial plant outside of Indianapolis comes amid a weeklong campaign tour of Pennsylvania. John Cougar Mellencamp's "Small Town" blared on the speakers, which is no surprise as Clinton tries to position herself as the candidate for middle class Americans.
Both Clinton and Obama are making a big push for Indiana, a state that may become a tiebreak situation if Clinton wins Pennsylvania and Obama wins North Carolina. Clinton currently trails Obama in the polls in Indiana by about 6 points.
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