FACTBOX: Obama under fire for remark on small town voters

(Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has come under fire for describing small-town voters in Pennsylvania as people who "cling to guns or religion" because they are "bitter" over job losses.

His rivals Hillary Clinton, a Democrat, and John McCain, a Republican, have seized on the comments, saying they show Obama is an elitist, with a condescending view of the middle class.

Obama later said he does believe voters are angry over job losses but his words were ill-chosen. "If I worded things in a way that made people offended, I deeply regret that," he told the Winston-Salem Journal newspaper.

Here is some background on the controversy and the impact it is having on the U.S. presidential race.

THE COMMENTS

"You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them," said Obama, an Illinois senator.

"And it's not surprising then they get bitter, 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."

WHERE AND WHEN HE SPOKE

Obama made the comments a week ago at a gathering of wealthy donors in San Francisco that was closed to the press.

He spoke in response to a question about whether he was having trouble courting working-class voters who have gravitated toward Clinton. A contributor at the fundraiser tape recorded the comments and posted them on the liberal Huffington Post blog on Friday.

WHY THE COMMENTS ARE CAUSING A STIR

The furor could threaten Obama's chances in Pennsylvania, which votes on April 22, the next big showdown in his fight with Clinton for the Democratic nomination to face likely Republican nominee McCain in November's presidential election.

White, working-class voters are a significant constituency in Pennsylvania. Polls show Clinton has had an edge with these voters though Obama has cut into her support.

In Pennsylvania, her lead has dwindled to around 6 percentage points from double digits a few weeks ago.

WILL THE LABEL OF "ELITIST" STICK TO OBAMA?

Both Clinton and Obama are millionaires, though Clinton is vastly wealthier. Her tax returns show she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have taken in nearly $110 million since they left the White House in early 2001.