by Mike Dorning and updated with Clinton response
PITTSBURGH—Barack Obama ridiculed rival Hillary Clinton for a shot-and-a-beer photo op over the weekend in Indiana as he sought to counter the controversy over remarks he made about “bitter” feelings in small-town America.
Clinton downed a shot of Crown Royal whiskey, hoisted a beer and ate a slice of pepperoni pizza Saturday night at a restaurant in Crown Point, Ind., after spending the day branding Obama’s remarks “elitist.”
But in a speech to a forum on manufacturing issues, at which Clinton is scheduled to appear later this morning, Obama blasted support during her husband’s administration for free trade deals, suggesting her connection with working-class voters was political theater.
“Around election time, the candidates can’t do enough. They’ll promise you anything, give you a long list of proposals and even come around, with TV crews in tow, to throw back a shot and a beer,” Obama said, stirring laughter from an audience of steelworkers and steel industry executives.
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“But if those same candidates are taking millions of dollars in contributions from the PACs and the lobbyists, ask yourself, who are they going to be toasting once the election is over?” he continued.The Clinton campaign responded with a statement e-mailed to reporters.
“With all due respect, this is the same politician who spent six days posing for clichéd camera shots that included bowling gutterballs, walking around a sports bar, feeding a baby cow, and buying a ham at the Philly market (albeit one that cost $99.99 a pound). Sen. Obama’s speeches won’t hide his condescending views of Americans living in small towns,” Clinton spokesman Phil Singer said in the statement.
Obama also lambasted the Clinton Administration’s support for the North American Free Trade Agreement and Permanent Normal Trading Relations with China. And he condemned lobbying work on behalf of a free trade agreement with Colombia by Mark Penn, the Clinton campaign’s former chief strategist, who stepped down from the post for a less prominent role after Penn’s meetings with Colombian leaders were reported in the press.
“You can’t spend the better part of two decades campaigning for NAFTA and PNTR for China, and then come here to Pennsylvania, and tell the steelworkers you’ve been with them all along. You can’t say you are opposed to the Colombia Trade deal, while your key strategist is working for the Colombian government to get the deal passed. That’s something you can’t do,” Obama said.
“That’s not respect. That’s just more of the same old Washington politics. And we can’t afford more of the same,” he added.
Obama campaign officials said the Illinois senator planned to mount a stronger counter-attack at an appearance later today at a meeting of newspaper editors in Washington DC.
Since Obama’s remarks to a closed San Francisco fundraiser that economically distressed voters “cling to” guns and religion were publicly disclosed last Friday, Clinton and her allies have fanned controversy over them . Clinton has portrayed him as “patronizing”and “out of touch” with working class voters.
On Saturday, Clinton shared childhood memories of shooting lessons her father gave her at their summer home near Scranton, Pa. A day later Obama mocked Clinton as presenting herself as “Annie Oakley,” the storied female sharpshooter from the Old West.
Obama advisers are hoping Clinton has overplayed her hand on the controversy.
“They’re persistently, aggressively and relentlessly trying to exploit this and in doing that making these ludicrous representations of herself,” said chief strategist David Axelrod.
Obama’s remarks were disclosed Friday by the Huffington Post.
“You go into 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,” Obama said, according to the web site.
“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,” Obama reportedly continued. “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.”