Barack Obama took a stab at Hillary Clinton on Monday, saying a widely-circulated photo of her tossing back a shot of Crown Royal doesn't make her a woman of the people.

In fact, the Democratic presidential candidate said, Clinton and John McCain are merely Washington insiders who will say and do what they need to in order to get elected.

"Around election time, the candidates can't do enough for you. They'll promise you anything, give you a long list of proposals and even come around, with TV crews in tow, to throw back a shot and a beer," Obama said to a cheering forum of the Alliance for American Manufacturers in Pittsburgh.

His biting comment referred back to Clinton being photographed downing a shot and drinking a beer while talking with Indiana voters on Saturday night.

Clinton spokesman Phil Singer responded that Obama may need a refresher about his own photo ops.

"With all due respect, this is the same politician who spent six days posing for clichéd camera shots that included bowling gutterballs, walking around a sports bar, feeding a baby cow and buying a ham at the Philly market (albeit one that cost $99.99 a pound). Sen. Obama's speeches won't hide his condescending views of Americans living in small towns," Singer said in a statement.

McCain's campaign also issued a one-liner.

“It’s hard to keep a straight face when you’re accused of being out of touch by a guy who thinks the whole country is worried about the high price of arugula or that you hunt ducks with a six shooter," McCain senior adviser Mark Salter said, referring to previous comments by Obama, in particular on Sunday when he claimed Clinton was acting like Annie Oakley from the play "Annie Get Your Gun."

While speaking on trade policy, Obama lashed out at Clinton and McCain for trying to politicize remarks he made eight days ago in which he said Americans cling to guns and religion to vent their frustrations with government.

Clinton and McCain "are singing from the same hymn book," when they call him elitist, but in actuality, he's the one that is being honest about the impact of the global economy on small towns.

"Now it may be that I chose my words badly. It wasn't the first time and it won't be the last. But when I hear my opponents, both of whom have spent decades in Washington, saying I'm out of touch, it's time to cut through their rhetoric and look at the reality," he said.

Speaking at the same forum as Obama, Clinton later said that the remarks are offensive because they suggest a fundamental misunderstanding about Americans.

"I believe that people don't cling to religion, they value their faith," she said.

At the forum, Obama went on to say that unlike his opponents, he doesn't take money from corporate political action committees or lobbyists because he doesn't want to be beholden to special interests.

"If those same candidates are taking millions of dollars in contributions from the PACs and lobbyists, ask yourself, who are they going to be toasting once the election is over?" Obama asked.

Obama's counter-offensive follows days of bad publicity for the Democratic presidential candidate following the release of an audiotape of him speaking to San Francisco donors about his views of middle America.

"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years. ... 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," he said.

McCain responded that by saying that Americans who suffered most in the Depression were the same people who came back to make the U.S. the greatest nation on Earth.

"They suffered the worst during the Depression. But it had not shaken their faith in and fidelity to America and its founding political ideals. Nor had it destroyed their confidence that America and their own lives could be made better. Nor did they turn to their religious faith and cultural traditions out of resentment and a feeling of powerlessness to affect the course of government or pursue prosperity. On the contrary, their faith had given generations of their families purpose and meaning, as it does today. And their appreciation of traditions like hunting was based in nothing other than their contribution to the enjoyment of life," he told the annual meeting of The Associated Press.

Asked if Obama is an elitist, McCain responded that he doesn't know the Illinois senator well enough to say but that the remarks certainly are.

"I can only look at his remarks and I've seen them now several times and say that those are certainly not the vision that I have of America and its strength and its greatness and what its fundamental values and beliefs are," he said.

Obama's remarks are problematic, said Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund, not just because it suggests Obama is elitist, but because he's being hypocritical about his position on trade.

"Barack Obama has been stirring up the anti-trade sentiment he referred to in that speech. He opposed the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, which I think is a natural for Democrats to support because Colombia is one of our biggest allies in Latin America, he opposes NAFTA, and he's now been caught. He's saying one thing on the campaign trail to the working class audience, and to the fat cats in San Francisco he lumps in all this anti-trade sentiment as something that is a negative. It's clearly a double standard, it's clearly a case of a politician being caught with their rhetorical pants down," Fund told FOX News.

Seeing a rare opening in what has been a well-oiled campaign by Obama, Republicans are also attempting to exploit the remarks for political points. Illinois Republican Party Chairman Andy McKenna said Obama's comments are "an affront to the hardworking men and women who form the backbone of this country."

"Americans are seeking a leader who believes in them rather than someone who belittles their values," McKenna said in a statement issued Monday.

Brian Davis, a Republican candidate in Minnesota's 1st Congressional District, railed on freshman Democratic Rep. Tim Walz to withdraw his pledge to support Obama as a superdelegate.

"Obama's recent characterization of small towns in the Midwest as a collection of individuals who 'cling to guns or religion' out of helplessness and desperation reveals the elitist attitude of someone who neither respects the roots and faith traditions of our nation nor understands the freedoms afforded us by our Constitution," Davis said. "It is shocking, if not implausible, that a congressman representing this district could support him."

But whether Obama's remarks create a problem for him in the long-term remains to be seen. On Monday, Obama won the endorsement of Pittsburgh Steelers owner and chairman Dan Rooney, who had planned to stay neutral, but said after meeting with Obama at the forum had decided to offer his backing.