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Hillary Clinton speaks late Friday at a campaign stop at Drexel University in Philadelphia. (AP Photo)

Hillary Clinton and her surrogates are lunging at Barack Obama over his controversial small-town America comments, attempting to create a flash point with working-class voters potent enough to revive her campaign, with just 10 days until the crucial Pennsylvania primary.

Clinton called Obama’s remarks “elitist,” “demeaning” and “out of touch” Saturday morning, and high-powered supporters followed up by claiming the comments would damage everything from Obama’s credibility to his electability in a general election.

“I found his remarks undercutting his message of hope … he suggests that somehow the faith of those who live in small towns is superficial,” said former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack on a Clinton conference call Saturday with several Pennsylvania mayors who said they were offended by Obama’s comments. The Illinois senator said rural Americans “cling” to issues like religion, guns and anti-immigrant beliefs out of bitterness over lost jobs.

“I think it’s difficult for a Democratic candidate to be successful in a general election if he misreads and misunderstands people who live in small communities,” Vilsack said.

Clinton spoke extensively about Obama’s remarks later in Valparaiso, Ind., and said the Illinois senator was trying to “falsely divide” the country.

They were prying open an image of an aloof and insulated candidate that Obama, a Harvard-trained lawyer who consistently leads among wealthy and well-educated voters, has tried to fight.

It’s an attack Clinton is trying to make stick, when little else will.

The New York senator’s campaign has taken several hits in the last few weeks. She’s trailing by 136 total delegates, and the collapse of talks to hold re-do votes in Michigan and Florida, states she won but that were discounted for violating primary rules, severely jeopardizes her chances of catching up.

The campaign shake-up over former chief strategist Mark Penn and the controversy surrounding her false recollection of a White House-era trip to Bosnia only attracted more negative attention to her campaign.

And when the controversy over Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., posed what likely was the biggest threat to Obama’s campaign to date, Obama weathered the storm and bounced back in the polls. Ahead of Pennsylvania’s April 22 primary, he’s narrowed Clinton’s lead in the state to single digits.

But Clinton needs to win big in Pennsylvania, which offers a whopping 158 delegates, to narrow Obama’s lead and convince superdelegates that the race essentially is a toss-up. Wooing middle-class voters and campaigning on labor interests has been a big part of each candidate’s strategy.

Clinton’s and John McCain’s campaigns fired with charges of elitism after the clips first surfaced on The Huffington Post Friday of Obama talking last week with California donors about small-town Americans’ hang-ups. Obama was quoted as saying “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.”

“Barack Obama’s elitism allows him to believe that the American traditions that have contributed to the identity and greatness of this country are actually just frustrations and bitterness,” McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said in the campaign’s most recent statement Saturday.

But with her surrogates, Clinton has pressed the issue with a sense of urgency.

Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh told reporters the small-town comments make Obama vulnerable against the Republicans if he’s the nominee and should cause uncommitted superdelegates to think twice before casting their votes.

“The far right wing has a very good track record of using things like this relentlessly against our candidate, whether it’s Al Gore or John Kerry,” he said. “And I’m afraid this is the kind of fodder they might use to really harm him with.”

“Frankly the remarks are condescending, they are negative, they are hurtful. I found it to be most revealing of what the candidate really thinks of us,” said Harrisburg Mayor Steve Reed on the Clinton conference call.

Obama on Saturday morning said he chose his original words poorly. He told the Winston-Salem Journal that “I deeply regret” if anyone was offended by the remarks.

But he stood by his argument that Americans are disillusioned with a do-nothing government and so they understandably turn to values like religion.

Spokesman Hari Sevugan released a statement saying: “We won’t be lectured on being out of touch by Senator Clinton, who believes lobbyists represent real people and is awash in their money and who can’t tell a straight story about her lengthy record of supporting trade deals like NAFTA and China that have devastated communities in Pennsylvania and Indiana.

“She won’t change the broken Washington system that all too often leaves American workers behind, but Barack Obama will,” he said.

As the fighting drags on, polls show McCain is only rising in popularity — a sign that the longer the Democratic race lasts, the worse it will be for the party’s nominee in November.

Averages of head-to-head matchups on RealClearPolitics.com show McCain gaining on both Democratic candidates in the polls since mid-March.

An Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Thursday showed McCain erasing Obama’s 10-point advantage from a similar head-to-head poll taken in late February.

The poll also showed about a quarter of Obama supporters would vote for McCain if Clinton wins the nomination. About a third of Clinton supporters would do the same if Obama wins.

The sniping also could effectively kill chances for what some call the Democratic “dream ticket” — either Obama-Clinton or Clinton-Obama.

As for the Pennsylvania primary, Democratic strategist Susan Estrich told FOX News Clinton’s chances are good no matter what Obama says.

“With or without this comment, I would still put my money on Hillary in Pennsylvania with blue-collar voters … but, obviously, this is going to sort of accentuate it.”

FOX News’ Aaron Bruns, Mosheh Oinounou and Bonney Kapp contributed to this report.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 12th, 2008 at 3:21 pm and is filed under Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Top Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.