There are some good points here (wow, so much attention!) and I would say a few things in response.

I think it's more reasonable to be outraged (or irritated, as I am) over the concerted, systematic outrage and character assasinations of an entire group of pundits than to be outraged at one stupid but essentially correct statement by a candidate who has to make thousands of statements a week, and is bound to screw up once in a while. They're talking about it like he's a traitor--the spittle-spraying apoplexy seems overkill for the thing they're condemning. I'd be more inclined to listen to their point if they were calmer about it.

Perhaps the implication that economic trouble caused "guns and religion," bigotry, etc., is offensive, but the verb cling implies that these things were there to begin with. Whatever, it's equally flawed to parse words that way; on the face of it, the statement is wrong about that, but I still think there's a kernel of truth. In context, it implies demagogues have hijacked these values, pairing them with the bigotry that results from fear, to scare up votes. Yeah, i'ts offensive, but if you look at the history, it's got some truth to it.

As a small-town boy who went to college in New England, I am profoundly aware of New England elitism (in fact, that elitism helped me re-discover my fondness for firearms, partly as a way to shock uptight classmates). The elites I knew would never speak as directly as Obama did--they would find PC ways to make the point sound less offensive. I bet that most of them are, as we speak, trying very hard to sound scandalized by the whole thing, since it seems to be fashionable. It's that kind of soft, pandering condescension that I find more elitist.

My main reason for being so irritated, though, is the pattern I see here--it's exactly what happened to Gore and Kerry, who, for all their faults (and sure, let's assume for the sake of argument that they're effete, wimpy snobs) just might have managed things a bit better. Having a down-to-earth president has not worked out so well recently. I won't go off on the real scandal--that much of the criticism against Obama is coming from someone in his own party who has more of a herditary claim to elite status than he does. That deserves its own post.