Obama tries to cast off "elitist" label

By Caren Bohan - Analysis

PITTSBURGH (Reuters) - How does a Harvard-educated black lawyer, senator and U.S. presidential candidate convince white working-class voters he's just a regular guy?

Not by taking on two of their staunchest traditions -- guns and God -- a political lesson Barack Obama may be learning the hard way.

Obama's rivals in the White House race, Hillary Clinton and John McCain, labeled him an elitist after he told a San Francisco fundraiser that economically downtrodden voters in small Pennsylvania towns "cling to guns or religion" because they are "bitter."

"I am the first to admit that some of the words I chose, I chose badly," Obama told steelworkers in Pennsylvania, after facing a pounding for days from Clinton and McCain over the comments, which they said showed that the Illinois senator looked down on rural voters and their traditions.

"They were subject to misinterpretation. They were subject to be twisted," Obama said of the comments. "And I regret that. I regret that deeply."

Obama is pushing back by accusing his opponents of twisting the meaning of his words and suggesting that they are the ones who are out of touch with the middle class.

But Obama, who was viewed as the candidate of upscale "chardonnay" voters well before his remarks about guns and religion surfaced, faces a dilemma: he must now step up his efforts to connect with rural and blue-collar voters without coming across as a phony.

Whether he succeeds could be crucial in Pennsylvania, which votes on April 22 and is the next showdown in the battle between him and Clinton for the Democratic nomination.

Polls show that Clinton, a New York senator, holds a lead over Obama in Pennsylvania, though he is ahead of her in the overall number of delegates who will determine the outcome of the Democratic race. The winner will face McCain, an Arizona senator and the presumptive Republican nominee, in November.

POPULIST TONE

Even if he is able to weather Clinton's efforts to use his own words against him, Obama would face attempts to portray him as an elitist in the general election as Republicans signal they are poised to revive a strategy used to help sink John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004.

Obama, who would be the first black president, has strong support among African Americans at all income levels.

Young voters and college-educated voters are drawn to Obama's charisma and lofty rhetoric. The stylish, 46-year-old Obama has a glamour that many liken to slain President John F. Kennedy, whose family is often described as the closest thing America has to an aristocracy.

But many working-class voters, who have seen their standard of living eroded as factories have closed and jobs have been shipped overseas, are less interested in glamour than in concrete solutions that will ease their economic problems.

As a former first lady whose husband Bill Clinton is associated with a more vibrant economy in the 1990s, Hillary Clinton is a known quantity to these voters who in some case are wary of the "change" that is Obama's top theme.