April 11, 2008: Senator Barack Obama hit a bump in his presidential campaign after he made a comment about working class voters in Pennsylvania, calling them "bitter" Americans who "cling to guns or religion."
At a fund raising event in San Francisco, Obama said: "It's not surprising, then, they [working class voters] get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or anti-pathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
Obama seemed to realize immediately that his phrasing could be criticized and said, "I didn't say it as well as I should have," to the mainly student audience at Ball State University.
The remark was seized upon by the Clinton Campaign and Clinton herself referred to the remarks as "elitist."
On April 12, Obama grasped the "Bittergate" nettle, acknowledging that he could have spoken with greater precision but continued to describe the response to his remarks as a "political flare-up because I said something that everyone knows is true."
