The Clinton campaign poured gasoline on the controversy in every place and every way it could, accusing the Illinois senator of being "elitist and arrogant" and hoping that its charges will resonate with the working-class voters both candidates are vying for not only in Pennsylvania, but in upcoming primaries in Indiana and North Carolina as well.
Clinton supporters handed out "I'm not bitter" stickers in North Carolina, and held a conference call of Pennsylvania mayors to denounce Obama. In Indiana, Clinton did the work herself, telling plant workers in Indianapolis that Obama's comments were "elitist and out of touch."
Obamas Much Closer -- Literally -- to Working-Class Americans Than Clintons
For his part, Obama tried to quell the furor on Saturday, explaining his remarks while also conceding he had chosen his words poorly. "If I worded things in a way that made people offended, I deeply regret that," Obama said in an interview with the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina, where Obama holds a double-digit lead over Clinton in its primary on May 6.
Barack and Michelle Obama are hardly working-class Americans in their own right -- but they're also nowhere near fabulously wealthy by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, it wasn't until Barack Obama wrote a pair of best-selling books that he and his wife were finally able to pay off their student loan debt.
According to the Obamas' 2006 income tax returns, they had $991,296 in annual income, mostly from royalties on the Illinois senator's two books, Dreams From My Father and The Audacity of Hope. And that was down from the nearly $1.7 million they reported on their 2005 tax return from sales of Obama's first book.
That puts the Obamas -- who will release their 2007 income tax returns soon after they file them with the Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday -- somewhere between the uppermost echelons of America's middle class and the lowest ranks of the nation's "millionaire's club."
Clintons Out of Touch With Working Class Since Late '70s
But how can Clinton accuse Obama -- who's nowhere near the Clintons' wealth league -- of being an "elitist" and of being "out of touch" with working-class Americans when she and her husband have been out of touch with working-class Americans themselves for over 30 years?
This blogger hasn't forgotten Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign battle cry as a champion of the middle class -- not the blue-collar working class, but the white-collar middle class. And wasn't it Bill Clinton's alleged "elitism" during his first term as governor of Arkansas that got him kicked out of the governor's mansion in 1978?
In fact, the Clintons today are multimillionaires as far removed from the working class voters Hillary's trying to woo as Donald Trump, Rupert Murdoch and Bill Gates. Since leaving the White House in 2001, the Clintons racked up a more than $100 million fortune, according to the former first couple's recently-released income tax returns.
And in a move reminiscent of Mitt Romney's failed bid for the GOP nomination, Hillary Clinton even lent $5 million of her own money to her presidential campaign in January.
Hillary Still Has a Credibility Problem Over NAFTA
A high point of Bill Clinton's presidency was passage of the North America Free Trade Agreement, which his wife now criticizes at virtually every campaign stop.
But White House records show that as first lady, Hillary Clinton attended several meetings designed to build up congressional support for NAFTA in the early 1990s. She says she had reservations about the pact at the time, and made her feelings known in such gatherings.
But if the former first lady had "reservations" about NAFTA, then how come those "reservations" don't show up in White House records? And why have the congressional leaders she says she met to voice her "reservations" with NAFTA not publicly confirmed it?
Clinton supporters handed out "I'm not bitter" stickers in North Carolina, and held a conference call of Pennsylvania mayors to denounce Obama. In Indiana, Clinton did the work herself, telling plant workers in Indianapolis that Obama's comments were "elitist and out of touch."
Obamas Much Closer -- Literally -- to Working-Class Americans Than Clintons
For his part, Obama tried to quell the furor on Saturday, explaining his remarks while also conceding he had chosen his words poorly. "If I worded things in a way that made people offended, I deeply regret that," Obama said in an interview with the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina, where Obama holds a double-digit lead over Clinton in its primary on May 6.
According to the Obamas' 2006 income tax returns, they had $991,296 in annual income, mostly from royalties on the Illinois senator's two books, Dreams From My Father and The Audacity of Hope. And that was down from the nearly $1.7 million they reported on their 2005 tax return from sales of Obama's first book.
That puts the Obamas -- who will release their 2007 income tax returns soon after they file them with the Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday -- somewhere between the uppermost echelons of America's middle class and the lowest ranks of the nation's "millionaire's club."
Clintons Out of Touch With Working Class Since Late '70s
But how can Clinton accuse Obama -- who's nowhere near the Clintons' wealth league -- of being an "elitist" and of being "out of touch" with working-class Americans when she and her husband have been out of touch with working-class Americans themselves for over 30 years?
This blogger hasn't forgotten Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign battle cry as a champion of the middle class -- not the blue-collar working class, but the white-collar middle class. And wasn't it Bill Clinton's alleged "elitism" during his first term as governor of Arkansas that got him kicked out of the governor's mansion in 1978?
In fact, the Clintons today are multimillionaires as far removed from the working class voters Hillary's trying to woo as Donald Trump, Rupert Murdoch and Bill Gates. Since leaving the White House in 2001, the Clintons racked up a more than $100 million fortune, according to the former first couple's recently-released income tax returns.
And in a move reminiscent of Mitt Romney's failed bid for the GOP nomination, Hillary Clinton even lent $5 million of her own money to her presidential campaign in January.
Hillary Still Has a Credibility Problem Over NAFTA
A high point of Bill Clinton's presidency was passage of the North America Free Trade Agreement, which his wife now criticizes at virtually every campaign stop.
But White House records show that as first lady, Hillary Clinton attended several meetings designed to build up congressional support for NAFTA in the early 1990s. She says she had reservations about the pact at the time, and made her feelings known in such gatherings.
But if the former first lady had "reservations" about NAFTA, then how come those "reservations" don't show up in White House records? And why have the congressional leaders she says she met to voice her "reservations" with NAFTA not publicly confirmed it?
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