Obama and Marx

When Barak Obama was campaigning in April in San Francisco, he characterized MidWest voters who were suffering the effects of an economic downturn thus:

"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."

This remark by Obama sounds very much like Karl Marx when he said that "religion is the opium of the people." The quote originates from Marx's "Contribution to Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right"

In whose footsteps is Obama walking?