McCain Plans To Dog Obama's 'Bitter' Remarks

A top aide to Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) said Tuesday that Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) controversial remarks about people in small-town America are “an important and defining moment” in the campaign.

Steve Schmidt, a senior adviser to McCain, said on a conference call Tuesday, the purpose of which was to discuss McCain's newly unveiled economic plan, that the campaign would continue to talk about Obama's comments for "the duration" of his candidacy because the remarks "opened a window" into Obama's true views on small-town America.

McCain and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), as well as their surrogates, have heaped criticism on Obama since late Friday afternoon when news broke that the Illinois senator told a crowd at a San Francisco fundraiser that, as a result of prolonged job loss, many small-town Americans have become "bitter," and 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.”

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