As anyone interested in the American electoral process knows that on April 6 at a supposedly private fundraiser of extremely affluent, latte-sipping, cheese-tasting, wine-quaffing, limousine liberals at the ground zero of elitism—San Francisco—Sen. Barack Obama uttered these now infamous words:
“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 or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

What makes these 36 words so witheringly controversial? The Obama campaign and his defenders are focusing desperately on the “bitterness,” defending the assertion that the blue-collar working class voters in small-town Pennsylvania are bitter over the economic dislocations they have experienced over the past two decades.
However, the problem is not “bitterness” but the verb “cling.” Essentially, Obama sounded like a condescending elitist engaging in socio-economic analysis of these strange inhabitants of fly-over country.
Senator Clinton pounced on her opponent’s faux paus with whippet-like speed. Hillary’s retort: “The people of faith I know don’t cling to religion because they’re bitter. In fact, they embrace their faith because it gives them so much in return.”
Most Americans of faith (and that’s a significant majority of us) do embrace their faith because it brings meaning and purpose to their lives, regardless of economic circumstances.
Obama’s statement indicates that he believes working-class Americans “cling” to guns because they’re economically frustrated and they find comfort in toting around firearms. In other words, religion and guns are emotional security blankets in tough times. Such sentiments reveal egregious ignorance of the role firearms have always played in large swaths of our culture, which has nothing to do with economic status. Then Obama makes things worse by accusing working-class folk of being xenophobic and of scape-goating “people who aren’t like them.”
It’s pretty hard to get people to vote for you when you make it clear you not only don’t like or understand them, but you disdain them.
As Maureen Dowd put it, Obama sounds less like a candidate and more like an “anthropologist . . . observing the odd habits of the colorful locals.” When Maureen Dowd starts making those observations, you know the episode is serious and may have a long shelf life.
I was getting very sleepy as I drove across middle Tennessee the other day, so I stopped to get some coffee at a Waffle House in a rural area.
As I sipped my coffee, I eavesdropped on a conversation among some male blue-collar workers who were raising their cholesterol levels while solving the world’s problems. Sen. Obama’s clinging comments came up and one middle-aged man in bib overalls and work boots said, “I hate to say it, but he sounds like just another limousine liberal to me!” Does this “cling-gate” story have a shelf life—Yep!