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Contact: Republican National Committee, +1-202-863-8614

Obama Admits He's Made Boneheaded Moves On More Than One Occasion

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following was released today by the Republican National Committee:

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080519/RNCLOGO )

Obama Admits His "Biggest Boneheaded Move" Was Saying Rural And Small-Town Voters Clinged To Guns And Religion Because They Were Bitter:

Obama Tells The New York Times' Matt Bai ThatHis "Bitter" Comment Was His "Biggest Boneheaded Move." "But the moment Obama would most like to take back now, if he could, was the one last April when, speaking to a small gathering of Bay Area contributors, he said that small-town voters in Pennsylvania and other states had grown 'bitter' over lost jobs, which caused them to 'cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them.' That comment, subsequently posted by a blogger for the Huffington Post, undercut one of the central premises of Obama's campaign, an argument he first floated in his famous 2004 convention address -- that he could somehow erode the tired distinctions between red states and blue ones and appeal to disaffected white men who had written off national Democrats as hopelessly elitist. Instead, in the weeks that followed, white working-class primary voters, not only in industrial states like Pennsylvania but also in rural states like Kentucky and West Virginia, rejected his candidacy by wide margins, and he staggered, wounded, toward the nomination. 'That was my biggest boneheaded move,' Obama told me recently." (Matt Bai, "Magazine Preview - Working For The Working-Class Vote," The New York Times, 10/15/08)

But This Is Not The First Time Obama Admitted He's Made "A Boneheaded Move":

FLASHBACK: Obama Called His Purchase Of A Strip Of Land From Convicted Felon Tony Rezko "A Boneheaded Move" Because Rezko "Was Already Under A Cloud Of Concern" At The Time. "'I am the first one to acknowledge that it was a boneheaded move for me to purchase this 10-foot strip from Rezko, given that he was already under a cloud of concern,' Obama said. 'I will also acknowledge that from his perspective, he no doubt believed that by buying the piece of property next to me that he would, if not be doing me a favor, it would help strengthen our relationship.'" (Rick Pearson, "Obama Believes Himself A 'Viable Candidate' For Presidency," Chicago Tribune, 12/14/06)

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