After listening to a crowd screaming his name at Ball State University on Saturday, Sen. Barack Obama said he would be back to Muncie before the May 6 Indiana primary.
"We wanted to do a town hall [meeting] today," Obama said. "but we also want to do a big-arena rally, so we are going to try to come back."
Obama spoke to the crowd in Irving Gym about the economy, the war in Iraq and recent controversial rhetoric surrounding his campaign.
In a campaign fundraiser April 5 in San Francisco, Obama called some small-town people "bitter" and that "they cling to guns and 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."
Trying to explain himself in Irving Gym, Obama said his recent remarks caused a typical political flare up because he said it is something everybody knows is true. There are a lot of people in Pennsylvania, in Indiana and in Illinois who are bitter, he said.
"[The people] are angry," Obama said. "They feel like they have been left behind. They feel like nobody is paying attention to what they're going through. So I said well you know when you're bitter you turn to what you can count on. So people they vote about guns, or they take comfort from their faith and their family and their community."
As he kept talking, the crowd listened intently.
"And they get mad about illegal immigrants who are coming over to this country or they get frustrated about how things are changing," Obama said. "That's a natural response."
Having already said his words were "ill-chosen" late last week, Obama reiterated his recant to the Ball State audience.
"I didn't say it as well as I should have because you know the truth is that these traditions that are passed on from generation to generation, those are important," Obama said. "That's what sustains us."
However, the political fire storm already started at a Hillary Clinton campaign stop in Indianapolis.
Clinton said Obama's remarks were 'elitist and out of touch' and said she was 'taken aback by the demeaning remarks Sen. Obama said about people in small-town America', according to cnn.com.
"You know, Americans who believe in the Second Amendment believe it's a matter of Constitutional rights," Clinton said in front of a crowd of manufacturing workers Saturday. "Americans who believe in God believe it is a matter of personal faith. Americans who believe in protecting good American jobs believe it is a matter of the American dream."
Obama was introduced and endorsed by Muncie United Auto Workers President Bill Macintosh in front of more than 3,000 people Saturday at Ball State, despite his remarks about small-town life.
After Obama spoke with General David Petraeus about the war in Iraq last week, he told Ball State that the $10 billion a month being spent on the war could be used to put Muncie residence back to work.
"[Economic concerns] started on Main Street, while Wall Street had record profits," Obama said. "In the economic expansion we went through the last seven years, but the economy was growing the ordinary workers saw their daily jobs slow down."
How important Indiana's primary could be to Obama depends on the Pennsylvania and North Carolina primaries the same day.
Despite having a 13 point lead in the May 6 Pennsylvania primary, according to a Rasmussen poll in March, an April 7 poll by the same organization said Obama is behind by five, trailing 48-43.
The Illinois senator is winning North Carolina 56-33, according to April 5 Rasmussen poll.
With Pennsylvania's 158 delegates and North Carolina's 134 delegates, a strong share of Indiana's 74 delegates could give either side the momentum it needs going into the final stretch on the primary season.
"Indiana is going to be really important," Obama said as he concluded his remarks. "If we can win Indiana, we can win the general election."
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