Clinton attacks Obama for small-town voter remarks

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Democrat Hillary Clinton criticized presidential rival Barack Obama on Friday for describing small-town Pennsylvania residents as bitter and said she would help economically struggling communities, not look down on them.

Clinton, whose once big Pennsylvania lead over Obama in opinion polls has been shrinking ahead of their April 22 primary election showdown, said residents in small towns suffering from job losses across the state were resilient and optimistic.

"Pennsylvania doesn't need a president who looks down on them," she said at a rally in Philadelphia. "They need a president who stands up for them, who fights for them, who works hard for your futures, your jobs, your families."

Obama, an Illinois senator, was reported to have told a crowd at a San Francisco fundraiser earlier this week he understood why the struggles of residents in towns hard hit by manufacturing job losses would make them bitter.

"You go into 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," Obama was quoted as saying by the Huffington Post.

"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," he said.

Clinton, a New York senator and former first lady, once led Obama by double digits in Pennsylvania, the next battleground in their hard-fought battle for the Democratic nomination to face Republican John McCain in November's presidential election.

That lead has slowly dwindled to about 4 to 6 points in several recent polls in a state that has struggled from job losses and has a big population of blue-collar voters who have been Clinton's biggest backers.