Obama trades blows with Clinton

Democrat Barack Obama lashed out today at rival for the party’s presidential nomination Hillary Clinton, mocking her sudden vocal support for gun rights and saying he understands the concerns of working class people.

“She knows better. Shame on her. Shame on her,” Mr Obama told an audience in Steelton, Pennsylvania.

The Illinois senator has spent two days on the defensive after comments he made at a San Francisco fundraiser suggesting working class people are bitter about their economic circumstances and “cling to guns and religion” as a result.

Mrs Clinton has pounded him for the remarks, calling him “elitist and divisive”.

After reiterating his regret for his choice of words, Mr Obama turned the tables on Mrs Clinton – noting that she accepted campaign contributions from drug and insurance company lobbyists and mocking, among other things, her sudden fealty to the rights of gun owners.

“She is running around talking about how this is an insult to sportsmen, how she values the Second Amendment. She’s talking like she’s Annie Oakley,” Mr Obama said, invoking the famed female sharpshooter immortalised in the musical Annie Get Your Gun.

Mr Obama continued, saying “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.”

Mr Obama said the former first lady’s history in the White House and Senate proved she was not as sensitive to the concerns of working class voters in Pennsylvania and elsewhere as she tried to suggest. Pennsylvania’s primary is April 22.

“I just have to remind people of the track record,” Mr Obama said. “This is the same person who took money from financial folks on Wall Street and then voted for a bankruptcy bill that makes it harder for folks right here in Pennsylvania to get a fair shake. Who do you think is out of touch?

“This is the same person who spent a decade with her husband campaigning for NAFTA, and now goes around saying she’s opposed to NAFTA,” Mr Obama said, referring to the North American Free Trade Agreement that is widely unpopular in blue collar communities.

Mrs Clinton continued her attacks over Mr Obama’s comments today campaigning in her father’s boyhood hometown of Scanton, Pennsylvania.

“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.

Mrs Clinton also said Mr Obama’s comments feed into long-held stereotypes of the Democratic Party as being out of touch with regular people, suggesting the party may have a tough time winning the election in November if Mr Obama becomes the nominee.

“You don’t have to think back too far to remember that good men running for president were viewed as being elitist and out of touch with the values and the lives of millions of Americans,” she added, referring to Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, the defeated 2004 Democratic nominee.

“I think it’s very critical that the Democrats really focus in on this and make it clear that we are not (elitist). We are going to stand up and fight for all Americans,” Mrs Clinton said.

Mrs Clinton is counting on Pennsylvania’s vote to deliver a big win over front-runner Mr Obama and help keep her in the race.

Mr Obama reportedly leads Mrs Clinton in the 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.