Obama defends ‘bitter’ remarks after attacks by Clinton, McCain

Democrat Barack Obama struck back again today at his Democratic and Republican presidential rivals for accusing him of showing disrespect for American workers in remarks at a California fund-raiser last weekend.

“You know, there’s been a lot of talk in this campaign over the last few days about who’s ‘in touch’ with the workers of Pennsylvania,” he said. Obama noted that both New York Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Arizona Republican John McCain “seem to be singing from the same hymn book, saying that I’m ‘out of touch’ – I’m an ‘elitist’ – because I said a lot of folks are bitter about their economic circumstances.”

Acknowledging that he may have chosen his words “badly,” Obama countered that “when I hear my opponents, both of whom have spent decades in Washington, saying I’m out of touch, it’s time to cut through the rhetoric and look at the reality.”

To cheers from a crowd of union members and business leaders assembled at the Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh, Obama added: “You’ve heard this kind of rhetoric before. Around election time, the candidates can’t do enough for you. They’ll promise you anything. They’ll give you a long list of proposals and even come around, with TV crews in tow, and throw back a shot and a beer.

“But if those same candidates are taking millions of dollars in contributions from the [political action committees] and the lobbyists, ask yourself, who are they going to be toasting once the election is over?”

Obama said at a San Francisco fund-raiser that he thought small-town Americans were “bitter” over their economic woes and “cling to guns or religion” as a result. Today he focused on the hypocrisy of his opponents for saying he is out of touch while they have supported trade policies that have hurt working Americans.

“You can’t spend the better part of two decades campaigning for NAFTA and [Permanent Normal Trade Relations] for China, and then come here to Pennsylvania, and tell the workers that you’ve been with them all along,” Obama said of Clinton. “You can’t say you are opposed to the Colombia trade deal, while your key strategist is working for the Colombian government to get that trade deal passed… . That’s not respect.”

Clinton, who followed Obama to the podium at a candidate forum held by the Alliance for American Manufacturing, drew scattered boos as she began her remarks by criticizing Obama’s recent comments anew. She pressed on, however, repeating them before trying to distinguish herself as a candidate who really understands working Americans.

“I know that many of you, like me, were disappointed with recent remarks he made,” she said. “I believe that people don’t cling to religion. They value their faith. You don’t cling to guns. You enjoy hunting or collecting or sport shooting… . I don’t think he really gets it that people are looking for a president who stands up for you, and not looks down on you.”

On trade policy, Clinton and Obama both lambasted the Bush administration for being too lax in enforcing trade laws to protect American manufacturers and workers from unfair trade practices by the country’s trading partners.

Both were particularly critical of China, reprising a theme they have hit across Pennsylvania and other states recently in a bid to win over working-class voters hit hard by the decline of the country’s manufacturing sector.

While running for the Senate eight years ago, Clinton said she would have voted to normalize trade relations with China. Today, she accused China of unfairly dumping products and manipulating its currency, and promised that she would do more as president to use the World Trade Organization to strike back.

“China should be a trade partner, not a trade master,” Clinton said.

Obama, too, said the administration has done too little to confront China over its trade practices, calling Bush “a patsy” in his approach to negotiating trade deals. “What we need to do is just be better bargainers,” Obama said.

McCain, in an appearance in Washington before the Associated Press’ annual meeting, ducked a question about whether Obama himself is an elitist, saying he did not know the Illinois senator well enough. But he called Obama’s remarks “elitist,” saying that the small-town Americans who Obama was talking about were the same people “that made the world safe for democracy.”

Referring to Americans who survived the Great Depression and defeated Nazi Germany during World War II, McCain said: “They were not born with the advantages others in our country enjoyed. They suffered the worst during the Depression.” But, he said, they did not “turn to their religious faith and cultural traditions out of resentment.” On the contrary, he said, “their faith had given generations of their families purpose and meaning… . And their appreciation of traditions like hunting was based on nothing other than their contribution to the enjoyment of life.”

In his remarks before the press association, McCain announced his reluctant support for a “shield law” that would prevent reporters from going to jail for protecting unnamed sources. Praising the media for using its First Amendment right to disclose disgraces such as the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, McCain also faulted news organizations for disclosing security secrets and said a shield law is both “a license to do harm, perhaps serious harm, but it is also a license to do good, to disclose injustice and unlawfulness and inequities.”

Saying he hopes he will not come to “deeply regret my decision” to support the bill, McCain called on news organizations, “when you do something controversial or something that many people find wrong and harmful, you would explain fully and honestly how and why you did it and confess your mistakes.” “The workings of American newsrooms are some of the least transparent enterprises in the country, and it is easy to believe that the press has one set of standards for government, business and other institutions, and entirely another for themselves,” said McCain, whose reputation for “straight talk” makes him a favorite of the media. “And if you don’t mind a little constructive criticism from someone who respects you, I think that is an impression the press should work on correcting.”

noam.levey@latimes.com

johanna.neuman@latimes.com

Levey reported from Pittsburgh and Neuman reported from Washington.