På en fundraiser i San Francisco sa Obama följande som kritiserats hårt av både Clinton och McCain:
But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there’s not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of 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. And 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.
Frågan är om väljare vill bli beskrivna som bittra och vad menar han egentligen med ”cling to guns or religion”?
Clinton:
As I travel around Pennsylvania, I meet people who are resilient, who are optimistic, who are positive… Pennsylvanians don’t need a president who looks down on them, they need a president who stands up for them.
McCains kampanj:
It shows an elitism and condescension towards hardworking Americans that is nothing short of breathtaking. It is hard to imagine someone running for president who is more out of touch with average Americans.
Obama svarar på kritiken:
[tags]usa, presidentvalet, barack obama, usa-valet[/tags] dn
Hur skall det någonsin bli ordning på amerikansk politik om det hela handlar om vilka ord som väljs eller om någon supporter sagt ditt eller datt. Det går alltid att vinna billiga päng på detta, men är det inte sakfrågorna som är viktiga? Vilken vision har kandidaterna, och vad är det de önskar förändra? Gör man inte detta riskerar man att folk mer eller mindre totalt tröttnar på politikerna.