Premier Ewart Brown can't spin his way out of the mess he got himself into over his statement about white Bermudians and president-elect Barack Obama, said United Bermuda Party leader Kim Swan yesterday.

On Friday the Premier attacked The Royal Gazette's coverage of Dr. Brown's comments last week which used the headline: "White Bermudians wouldn't have voted for Obama, claims Premier."

The opening paragraph of the article stated: "Premier Ewart Brown claimed on Friday that if white Bermudians had voted in the US presidential election like they vote in Bermuda they would have plumped for John McCain rather than Barack Obama."

Both the headline and the opening paragraph were based on Dr. Brown's remark: "If you looked at the voting patterns in Bermuda, which all vote in lines, if whites in Bermuda were to vote in the US using the same lines, they would have voted for the other man."

During Friday night's debate, the Premier said: "This week The Royal Gazette and the Opposition have again combined their efforts against the PLP through a clear distortion of words I spoke in this House last week.

"When I say to you 'If I had wings I would fly,' I have not truly said I would or I could fly.

"The key point in that sentence is 'if'. The same way that if they (white Bermudians) vote in the election along the same lines as they do in Bermuda."

But yesterday Opposition leader Kim Swan said Dr. Brown's statement on Friday was an exercise in damage control. He added "No matter what spin he puts on it, everybody knew exactly what the Premier meant in his original remarks.

"They were completely in line with his divisive approach to politics.

"Dr. Brown is a divider not a uniter. His original statement in the House about how Bermudian whites would have voted in the US election is a good example of how he segregates and polarizes people with words."

It is a style of leadership the island does not need said Mr. Swan, who added that Bermuda needed to be united, not divided.

"This should be the aim of political leadership at all times; and particularly so when we are headed into what may be a period of severe economic decline."

The Premier declined to comment yesterday.