From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
Gov. Ed Rendell, in Pittsburgh yesterday to rally volunteers for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, said the latest controversy over what a presidential candidate said — Sen. Barack Obama’s comment that small-town Pennsylvanians cling to guns and religion out of frustration and bitterness over job losses — “shows a pretty significant lack of understanding of the people in Pennsylvania.”
“They have rifles because their fathers taught them to hunt at an early age,” he said. Similarly, he added, Pennsylvanians’ religious beliefs are part of a culture and tradition handed down from generation to generation across the commonwealth.
For Mr. Obama not to realize that “is pretty surprising” this far into the state’s primary campaign, the governor said, and suggests that the senator from Illinois hasn’t spent enough time in the state.
Then, Rendell goes on to say the flap over the “bitter” remark won’t make a significant difference.
Even so, Obama swung hard at John McCain and Hillary Clinton during a labor meeting in Steelton just before the Compassion Forum:
