Charlie Gibson asks if Obama understands why some Pennsylvanians found his comments he made in San Francisco patronizing.
Obama says his statement was “mangled up” but what he meant is something he has said many times — that people are going through hard times right now.
Hillary cites her Scranton upbringing, her father, and her grandfather. Says Obama expressed a “fundamental understanding” of the role of religion in people’s lives, in good times and bad . She gently stings at him on guns and religion. Says she can see why people would be “taken aback and offended” by the remarks.
Clearly, she thinks the religious angle is the most offensive one, and is focusing in on it in her response.
Asked by Stephanopolous if Obama can win, Hillary eventually says, “Yes.”
UPDATE: Another smart reader offers a theory in Democratic circles that the “cling” comment won’t hurt Obama in Pennsylvania, but will really hurt him in North Carolina and Indiana.
Obama says that Hillary took “one comment out of context” and hammered away at it.
Not unlike how he described Wright’s sermons, come to think of it.
Then he mentions her “baking cookies” comment in the early 1990s was blown out of proportion.
Hillary notes it wasn’t just her who responded, but “people who felt they were targeted, who felt the comments were directed at their way of life.”