Those comments were criticized as being elitist and showing Obama as out of touch with American values. The New Mexico GOP highlighted them in radio ads over the last week in eight rural markets. "Many are wondering: Who does Barack Obama think he is?" the ads say. "On second thought, who does Barack Obama think we are?"
Some Democratic activists said Thursday that they were worried about Obama's prospects in the general election, wondering if certain working-class white Democratic voters might abandon him for the Republican nominee, particularly in key states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio.
"I've lived my entire life in Ohio and, unfortunately, there are pockets of intolerance and there are people who are resentful of minority gains," said John Hartman, 62, a Bowling Green resident and local Democratic committeeman.
Brett Penrose, an Obama supporter and vice president of the Democratic Club in Johnson County, Missouri, said in an interview that some white Democrats would be turned off by Wright's sermons.
"Definitely, in this part of the country, it plays more than people want to say," said Penrose, 42. "Does it hurt? In the end it does hurt."
The GOP attacks come as Clinton's campaign tries to convince Democratic insiders that Obama is a riskier bet than the New York senator for winning the White House and helping local and state candidates.
The strategy is to convince superdelegates, the party insiders who are expected to cast the decisive votes in the nominating battle, that they should back Clinton -- even though Obama will probably have the most pledged delegates, who are selected by the party's voters in primaries and caucuses.
Obama has drawn strong support from some of the party's important core voting groups: blacks, upper-income liberals and people with college degrees. But in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, he won just 37% of white voters, losing among seniors, Catholics, regular churchgoers, people without college degrees and those from lower-income households.
But even as he has struggled with those groups in recent contests, polls suggest he would be no weaker than Clinton against presumptive GOP nominee John McCain in November.
A recent national Gallup survey found that when Clinton and Obama are matched against McCain, they draw about the same share of white voters: 44% for Obama and 45% for Clinton. McCain got 50% of the white vote in the survey.
