by Mike Dorning
PITTSBURGH—Hillary Clinton charged this morning that rival Barack Obama is blaming blue-collar workers for his own failure to connect with them.
“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,” Clinton said in a speech to a forum on manufacturing issues here this morning.
Clinton and her allies have fanned controversy over remarks Obama made at a closed San Francisco fundraiser that economically distressed voters in small towns are “bitter” and “cling to” guns and religion.
Obama made the comment in response to a question on why he was having difficulties connecting with white working-class voters in rural Pennsylvania. Clinton leads in polls of Pennsylvania, which will hold the next Democratic primary on April 22, and she also has generally outperformed Obama among blue-collar workers.
“Instead of looking at himself, he blamed them,” Clinton said.
(Sen. Hillary Clinton in Pittsburgh today. AP Photo by Carolyn Kaster) During a question-and-answer period following her speech, a steelworker asked Clinton how voters could believe her promises of a tougher line on trade after her husband “tricked” unions in 1992 with election promises that he would not sign NAFTA without stricter labor and environmental standards.
“As smart as my husband is, he does make mistakes,” Clinton responded.
“We’ve now had 15 years of experience with NAFTA and the evidence is clear,” she added, “We have to change the basic provisions of NAFTA, and I am committed.”