the great orator "didn't say it as well" as he "could have"

It has been plastered all over the news that Senator Obama has offended a great deal of Americans with words he delivered at a rally in California. Referring to people from small towns, he said, "And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or 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."

In an interview with the Winston-Salem Journal, Obama attempted damage control, offering up this non-apology: "Obviously, if I worded things in a way that made people offended, I deeply regret that. The underlying truth of what I said remains, which is simply that people who have seen their way of life upended because of economic distress are frustrated and rightfully so. And I hear it all the time when I visit these communities."

I find the clarification almost as insulting as the original remarks, which betray a deep resentment of a very large portion of America. This is quite clear in such language as "antipathy to people who aren't like them." Obama accused small town Americans of being gun-toting, racist religious fundamentalists. What is there about this to clarify? In fact, the clarification doesn't clarify. It says something completely different. He speaks of small town people "rightly" being "frustrated," yet his original remarks showed no empathy for these people. Who sympathizes with people who cling to "antipathy toward people who aren't like them"?
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Also, notice that Obama does not apologize (after all, it's a clarification, not an apology) for his remarks. He only "regrets" that his words "made some people offended." I'm sure I'm only imagining the veiled contempt hidden in those words "some people."