Buckwheat's Big Debate TONIGHT! Will Hitlary Show Up Drunk?

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/04/15/obama-has-chance-at-debate-to-mute-or-stoke-controversy-over-small-town-comments/

Obama Has Chance at Debate to Mute - or Stoke - Controversy Over 'Small Town'

Comments

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Barack Obama will have to put on his game face Wednesday night at a crucial

debate in Philadelphia if he wants to ensure his controversial comments

about small-town American voters don't become a game changer.

The debate will be the last time Obama and Hillary Clinton face off before

the April 22 Pennsylvania primary. Polls show Obama, who has consistently

trailed Clinton in the Keystone State, closing the gap to single digits, but

the fallout over his recent gaffe threatens to dampen his performance in the

state. Clinton and John McCain have both accused him of elitism for his

comments about rural gun owners and religious voters being bitter.

The candidates are campaigning hard ahead of the debate and the primary.

Clinton on Tuesday outlined an aggressive 100-day presidential agenda and

Obama promised to "play offense for working Americans."

Clinton's prospective 100-day agenda included the start of a troop

withdrawal from Iraq and submitting a budget to Congress that rolls back

some of President Bush's tax cuts. She also promised to "shut down

Guantanamo" and "disavow torture," as well as sign bills Bush has vetoed to

expand federal embryonic stem-cell research and broaden government-supported

health care to millions of lower-income children who now go without.

"In short, starting from day one, the Bush-Cheney era will be over in name

and in practice," she said at a meeting of the Newspaper Association of

America.

For his part, Obama promised a union audience he would reverse a decision by

Bush that effectively lowered wages for construction crews on government

projects, and he mocked McCain in the process.

"We're ready to play offense for the minimum wage. We're ready to play

offense for retirement security," he said.

But the back-and-forth over Obama's small-town America comments have

dominated the campaign conversation since Friday night, when the Huffington

Post reported that Obama told a group of San Francisco donors the weekend

prior that rural voters in Pennsylvania and elsewhere "cling" to guns and

religion and anti-immigrant feelings out of frustration over lost jobs.

Clinton is still trailing by 136 delegates, according to the latest

Associated Press tallies. But the Obama remarks could give her an opening to

pull out a commanding performance in Pennsylvania, which with 158 delegates

represents the most influential primary left on the calendar.

That presumably would move the race to Indiana and North Carolina, which

vote May 6.

Clinton did not mention the controversy at the editors' convention Tuesday

afternoon, but the two candidates carried on the spat via television ads. A

new Clinton ad in Pennsylvania featured five residents criticizing Obama's

remarks as insulting and out of touch.

Obama shot back with an ad of his own that plays footage of Clinton being

jeered for bringing up the "bitter" comments Monday in Pittsburgh and claims

people are "rejecting" her attacks because she represents "old Washington

politics."

Obama also said Tuesday it's "silly" for anyone to call him an elitist,

since he was raised by a single mother and has worked extensively in

low-income communities.

But he's repeatedly said he should have chosen his words more wisely.

A Quinnipiac University poll of Pennsylvania voters released Tuesday showed

the race's margin unchanged from one week earlier, with Clinton polling at

50 percent and Obama at 44 percent.

A national Gallup tracking poll from Tuesday showed Obama with an 11-point

lead over Clinton, his widest national lead in that poll so far this year.

The poll showed Obama with 51 percent and Clinton with 40 percent.

"It doesn't seem to have hurt him that much," Democratic strategist Kirsten

Powers told FOX News, adding that it would be more of an issue for him in a

general election.

But she warned, "For a person who puts so much importance on words . he

needs to be a lot more careful about how he says things."

Michael Steele, FOX News contributor and the former Republican lieutenant

governor of Maryland, said the remarks offer an opportunity for Obama's

detractors to define him in a negative light.

"The reality of it is we get a window into the soul of the man, at least an

idea of what he thinks about parts of America," he said.

A Rasmussen survey released Monday found 56 percent of voters nationwide

disagree with Obama's San Fransciso remarks. Just 25 percent of those

surveyed agree with Obama.

Aside from Clinton's morning appearance Wednesday before Building Trades

National Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C., the candidates are

laying low before the Philadelphia debate, at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

And it could be their last debate for a while. Obama's campaign confirmed

that it has not committed to an April 27 CBS debate in North Carolina. The

campaign would not specify why it is waiting to accept or decline, saying

only that Obama accepted an earlier debate for April 19, but that Clinton

turned it down.

In recent weeks, party officials have called for a reasonably quick end to

the campaign.

Asked about the attacks between the Clinton and Obama campaigns Tuesday,

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid jokingly told reporters, "Makes me

bitter."

Then he followed up, "This is all going to be over fairly soon."

Once the front-runner, Clinton's hopes of winning the nomination now rest on

her ability to finish the primary season with a series of strong victories,

beginning next week in Pennsylvania and carrying through the final

primaries, June 3 in Montana and South Dakota.

She then must persuade enough superdelegates - party officials who are not

picked by the voters - that she is a more electable candidate than Obama,

and overtake him in the weeks leading up to the nominating convention in

August.

So far, despite the furor over his remarks, Obama has not lost the public

support of any previously committed superdelegate.