Obama told rich campaign donors in April 2008 that blue collar workers in Pennsylvania and the mid-west were 'bitter clingers' and 'anti-immigrant'

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9/17/12, "The secret video of Romney talking to donors," Althouse blog

"Compare the statements Obama made to donors in 2008, which were leaked out — the famous "bitter clingers" remarks.

"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," Obama said. "And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. 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."

Obama made a problematic judgment call in trying to explain working class culture to a much wealthier audience. He described blue collar Pennsylvanians with a series of what in the eyes of Californians might be considered pure negatives: guns, clinging to religion, antipathy, xenophobia."

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