Too many generations of Americans have enriched the sod of flyover country and elsewhere with their blood, sweat and toil -- precisely so that a Barack Obama might some day aim for the White House -- to dismiss them so glibly.

These 21st century folks don't cling to guns out of bitterness, but often to hunt for game that ends up on their dinner table. In some families, that tradition is only a generation or two away from necessity. Their faith isn't an antidote to frustration but is a centuries-old framework for spiritual transcendence.

As for their not liking people who are not like them, what could Obama have meant? That people who are barely clinging to jobs are xenophobic rather than justifiably concerned that our immigration laws are a joke?

Obama has expressed regret that his words might have been offensive and artfully shifted focus to Clinton's own pandering about learning to shoot a gun as a child.

"She's talking like she's Annie Oakley. Hillary Clinton's out there like she's on the duck blind every Sunday, (like) she's packin' a six-shooter."

Fair enough. Annie got her gun and Obama got his boot stuck in his mouth. But God-fearing defenders of the Second Amendment -- who are in their duck blinds packing shotguns, not six-shooters -- know a decoy from the real thing.

If someone quacks like an elitist, he just might be one.