Barack Obama defends his "bitter" comments as Hillary Clinton
continues to claim Obama "doesn't get it" at a manufacturing forum
in Pennsylvania.

 PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, USA (APRIL 14, 2008) NBC -

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama spent a fourth
day on Monday (April 14) defending himself for calling people in small towns
suffering from economic blight "bitter".    
    "Now it may be that I chose my words badly. It wasn't the first
time and it won't be the last. But when I hear my opponents, both of whom have
spent decades in Washington, saying I'm out of touch, it's time to cut through
their rhetoric and look at the reality," Obama said.
     His rival Hillary Clinton has called the remarks elitist and has
called for Obama to explain himself.   Speaking later in the day at the same
forum, Clinton said "instead of looking at himself, he blamed them,"
she said of Obama. "I don't think he really gets it."
    For Clinton, Obama's remarks have been a gift she needed badly to try
to revive her struggling bid to overtake Obama's lead in the state-by-state
contest for the Democratic nomination, with tests coming in Pennsylvania on
April 22 and Indiana and North Carolina on May 6.