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OBAMA ‘CONDESCENDS’ A MESSAGE TO ‘BITTER’ FOLK

Democratic front-runner Sen. Barack Obama‘s was accused of talking down to working-class voters yesterday after he said “bitter” folks in Pennsylvania and the Midwest “cling to guns or religion” out of frustration over disappearing jobs.

The comments, reported by The Huffington Post, came at a San Francisco fund-raiser last Sunday as Obama talked about his efforts to connect with blue-collar voters in Pennsylvania, who will head to the polls in less than two weeks and who have favored Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in prevoting surveys.

“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,” he said.

“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.

“And it’s not surprising, then, they get bitter. They cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations,” he said.

Clinton immediately slammed Obama, saying most working-class voters were “optimistic” and hardworking.

“Pennsylvanians don’t need a president who looks down on them,” Clinton said.

“They need a president who stands up for them, who fights for them, who works hard for your futures, your jobs and your families.”

maggie.haberman@nypost.com