Obama Tries To Backtrack On Small Town Voter Comments

Obama says he erred in comments on "bitter" voters

MUNCIE, Indiana (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, attacked by his rivals as an elitist for describing small-town voters as people who "cling to guns or religion," said on Saturday he erred in how he expressed the concerns of those voters.

Those voters were "bitter" about job losses and other economic woes and so "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," Obama, an Illinois senator, said.

After facing a barrage of criticism from New York Sen. Clinton and Arizona Sen. McCain, Obama told a campaign rally in Muncie, Indiana, his description was clumsy and did not convey his meaning.

"I didn't say it as well as I should have," said Obama, who is vying with Clinton for the Democratic nomination and the right to run in November against presumptive Republican nominee McCain.

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