Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton blasted her US Democratic presidential rival Senator Barack Obama during a debate on compassion on Sunday, accusing him of being “elitist” and “patronizing.”
First up in the “Compassion Forum” broadcast live on CNN from Messia College in Pennsylvania, Clinton accused Obama of being “elitist, out of touch, and frankly patronizing” for having labeled struggling working class voters “bitter.” Clinton suggested her rival did not respect people who sought comfort in religion.
Pennsylvania will hold its presidential primaries next Tuesday.
“You know, the Democratic Party, to be very blunt about it, has been viewed as a party that didn’t understand and respect the values and the way of life of so many of our fellow Americans,” Clinton said, boasting she had felt the presence of God in her life.
Religion plays a key role in US politics, where an overwhelming majority of voters say they would never to elect an atheist to office.
Obama admitted “my words may have been clumsy, which happens surprisingly often on a presidential campaign.”
But, “in my own life ... religion is a bulwark, a foundation when other things aren’t going well,” he said.
Obama explained he never intended to pick on religious people, but on those who were “bitter” because they felt ignored by the government.
In comments made at a fundraiser in California last week, Obama said that white, working class voters, seen as a key voting bloc in this year’s presidential race, had turned away from Washington after years of economic decline and cast their votes on social issues instead of economic ones.
“So it’s not surprising then that 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,” he said, according to a transcript published by huffingtonpost.com.
Clinton has long led in the polls in Pennsylvania, largely due to support from working class voters and union members, but the most recent average of polls by realclearpolitics.com shows her lead dwindling to 7.3 percent.
Clinton, the early front-runner in the Democratic race, trails Obama in the state-by-state votes ahead of an August party convention, where the nominee will be chosen. The winner is likely to face Republican Senator John McCain in November.
However, Clinton and Obama were close on issues such as abortion and the AIDS epidemic.
“I believe that the potential for life begins at conception,” Clinton said. “I think abortion should remain legal, but it needs to be safe and rare.”
She suggested that women should have choices other than abortion and stated that she often felt God’s presence in her life.
Also referring to God, Obama said he always strove to be “an instrument of his will.”
He said he supported abortion rights, but that those opposed to them had equally good reasons.
“And those who are opposed to abortion, I think, should continue to be able to lawfully object and try to change the laws,” he said.
The hard choice of abortion “is a woman’s responsibility,” he said while shirking from a question on when he thought life began: “This is something that I have not ... come to a firm resolution on.”
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