Clinton: Obama Not Winning Over "Hard-Working Americans, White Americans"

USA Today notices that Sen. Hillary Clinton has begun referring explicitly to her appeal among white voters while on the campaign trail:

Hillary Rodham Clinton vowed Wednesday to continue her quest for the Democratic nomination, arguing she would be the stronger nominee because she appeals to a wider coalition of voters -- including whites who have not supported Barack Obama in recent contests.

"I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."

This is the second time since Tuesday's primaries that the Clinton campaign has referred to the racial dimension of the voting electorate. Ben Smith reports from yesterday's conference call on the state of the race:

And Garin brags, specifically and explicitly, about her strength with the white vote, comparing North Carolina's white voters in North Carolina to those in Virginia. (The conversations have always been about these voters, but they're usually referred to as "blue collar" or by some less specifically racial euphemism.)

"We lost the white electorate in Virginia, started even in North Carolina among the white electorate just two weeks ago, and ended [with] a very significant win of 24 points among those voters," he said, acknowledging that among black voters, Clinton "did not do as well as we would want or need."

Comments

[missette]

06:29 PM on 05/10/2008

What's been missing from this whole argument by the MSM is Obama's approval rating by whites who are are quite familiar with him. He has an astounding 70 percent approval rating in Illinois, and won the Wisconsin primary by 17 percent, largely on the basis of white votes. Much of Wisconsin gets Illinois media, and people have been following him for many years there, just as in northwestern Indiana. Once the Democratic Party officially makes Obama the nominee, he'll have no trouble winning over the broad white middle class. To know him is to like him.

[DrDemon]

03:42 PM on 05/09/2008

To benefit her own hide; she divides!

[dinger]

11:04 AM on 05/09/2008

What's saddening is that they are not racists, but willing to use race as a wedge anyway. Just proves there is no depth to how low they will go in order to get what they want for themselves. I'm appalled.

[msemper]

10:37 AM on 05/09/2008

someone should ask Hillary if she real believe that hard working white people will not vote for obama?
even though obama's policies are beneficial to them? I believe she is not giving hard working white people credit for knowing what's in their base interest. I feel she is disrespecting poor white amercians that they will vote for a party thats helped keep them poor.

Remember that one of the reason Bush won the election in 2004 what that he claim he will get us on of this mess that he help started. We all know thats did not happen. we are still in this mess. Thats the only reason why obama is doing so well. People that never voted are voting. also people that once believe that black man is good for anything.

[becky]

11:01 AM on 05/09/2008

Obama is inexperienced. That is scary to a lot of people.

[bilmardre]

11:05 AM on 05/09/2008

Well there is a lot of experience in Washington DC today.
What has that got you?

[txgal44]

10:06 AM on 05/09/2008

What a sad little woman.

[Trueheart]

09:52 AM on 05/09/2008

Although I'm not a Hillary Clinton fan, I think she is now jockeying for the VP slot, and that her inclusion on the ticket would be an asset for precisely the reasons she is talking about. Obama is simply not going to attract blue-collar, lower-middle class voters, and the Democrats need them on board in order to win. Talking about race and ethnicity out in the open is always tricky and unsettling to hear. It makes us uncomfortable, but if it ain't out in the open, it sure as hell is being discussed behind closed doors.

[becky]

10:24 AM on 05/09/2008

As a Hillary supporter, I don't think she should be vice president. She can accomplish more in the Senate. Hopefully, enough democrats will win seats this November so they will be able to override any vetoes signed by President McCain.

[msemper]

10:41 AM on 05/09/2008

wow you must don't like black people....lol. because thats only reason why you will hope for mccain. its so sad. however I believe america is not as hateful as you.

America is not the same america any more. We are all one.

[janex]

11:54 PM on 05/09/2008

Mrs. Clinton is no longer a political asset to anyone. I had a student who worked secret service during the Clinton years, and he was firmly convinced that Hillary had physically assaulted Bill and secret service had to pull her off of him which made her angry with secret service detail.

Now, I have no evidence that Hillary Clinton physically assaulted Bill Clinton, but based on her behavior on the campaign trail and her spoiled brat tantrums every time she doesn't get her way, if I had to bet on it, I would be that she did.

Things between her and Al Gore are sour because she tried to push him out of his position as Vice President. I can't imagine that she would let Obama be President if she were the Veep. He shouldn't have to watch his back that closely. There will be big enough challenges without an underling who wants your job and feels that it was given to some undeserving interloper.

[lapinbrim]

09:29 AM on 05/09/2008

Some people (an almost imperceptible number) contend that HRC's comments are as benign as Obama acknowledging that he benefits from extremely high support from blacks. This is not the case. HRC is clearly trying to reinforce the notion that white people reject Obama, which is not the case. Furthermore, I fear she is trying to project to hardworking people (who only happen to be white, and lower middle class) that Obama does not care about them.

The manner in which one frames an argument is as important as the underlying facts that one uses to support their argument. She is not very subtly making the case that Obama is different from these voters, because of his race. In fact, aside from his race, he more understands what it is like to be lower middle class white person than she does, given that he grew up that way. Oh, by the way, he is half white...

I've tried to give her the benefit of the doubt many times, but she is most definitely race baiting. The leadership in the Democratic party should step up and fervently repudiate her tactics.

[madhatter123]

09:15 AM on 05/09/2008

http://www.democrats.org/contact.html
Write the DNC now. Hillary needs to step down and the delegates of MI and FL should NOT be seated per the rules that were agreed to in the fall.

[exotic]

09:12 AM on 05/09/2008

Hillary, dog, it's over.

Go and ......just go away!

You and your rednecked husband have been exposed.

[hhkeller]

09:10 AM on 05/09/2008

The uniter candidate managed to alienate half the dems.
Idiot,

[BarackMan]

09:26 AM on 05/09/2008

How exactly did he alienate half the dems? Not by what he has said......but by having the audacity of beating the presumptive nominee. WOW....the nerve!!

Obama '08!

[benwha]

09:36 AM on 05/09/2008

So HRC had nothing at all to do with the divisiveness?

[Tane]

09:08 AM on 05/09/2008

Why isn't anyone asking why Hillary can't win over educated voters, activists, blacks or the youth? Why are white, uneducated "Reagan Democrats" considered so much more important than the educated, the politically involved, the most reliable Democratic constituency and the future of our country?

How is it that those constituencies are being discounted in favor of the "swing" voters who have not been a strong voting block for the Democrats in years?

[txgal44]

10:03 AM on 05/09/2008

Tane, it's just a game.

[benwha]

08:56 AM on 05/09/2008

Unfortunately it is comments like these HRC needs to make to give her some exposure as I really believe coverage of her by the media is really going to start tapering off.

[spooks51]

08:39 AM on 05/09/2008

If exit polls are just so much crap that they are no indicator as to whom people vote for, how can they be used to say what race or economic group votes for a certain candidate?

[Hopeforward]

08:33 AM on 05/09/2008

I was astounded at Hillary's comment with USAToday. There is absolutely no other way to take it than "race baiting" and a way to further divide the party and a means to try and destroy Senator Obama, which has been my fear since she decided to stay in the race. Which leaves me to that suspicion in my mind that's been sitting there, and it sickens me to think it, but after hearing Sean Hannity publicly say he had an inside "source" in the Clinton campaign, since it would be too obvious and considered way below the trenches for the Clinton's to release the Wright story, did "someone" inside the campaign hand it over to Hannity? did "someone" from the inside have them run with the Ayers story too? after all, let's not forget Hillary has been courting Faux news like they are her allies and they seem to be defending her race baiting and all. After watching a documentary of the Clinton's and the way they learned to "win", it was going after the person and cutting him off at the knee caps with personal issues at all costs, and that's exactly what I see here.

[ApolloniaCreed]

08:44 AM on 05/09/2008

One guess on the insider... George Snuffaluphagus! Not officially part of the campaign, I know... but he was the person the Ayers debate question was handed to (from Hannity).

[katzooks]

08:33 AM on 05/09/2008

White working class voters tend to base their votes on hot-button issues -- the fearmongering flavor of the week: patriotism, abortion, gun control, gays, race, religion -- shooting themselves in the foot, each election. Hot button issues always trump the real issues, such as the economy, the war, unemployment....

This is why the white working class overwhelmingly voted in Bush-Cheney (twice, no less!). , rejecting both Gore and Kerry, who clearly spoke to the real issues affecting the white working class. In polls, the white working class overhwhelming trusted Bush-Cheney to handle the economy, which assuredly had more to do with the Republican smear campaign of Kerry's patriotism than with working class pocketbooks.

The challenge, then, is for the Democratic party to keep hammering the point home to working class voters: we have your backs. Further, the Democrats cannot allow themselves to get mired in hot-button issues, such as patriotism, race, religion, etc. Problem is, Hillary Clinton continues to seed more than enough hot button issues to keep the real issues from being discussed, come autumn. I think that only a loud resounding, "NO" from good Democrats can stop these issues from hijacking the election. Write letters to your representatives and to the media. Tell them, hell no, we're not gonna sit in the sidelines for another dirty Republican dog and pony show.

[CocteausTwin]

09:51 AM on 05/09/2008

Well I guess if there is any hope, they are being moved from the working class. I have much respect for people who work hard to build their family, but if they will not put effort into figuring out what is important, then they have failed miserably in such an objective.