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

[CocteausTwin]

Part 2 of 2============================

New Yorkers please send her quickly from our party. All of you deserve much better. It's not like she was born in your state.

[Tane]

From one of the millions of lazy, educated, reliably Democratic, white, female voters that cast their vote for Barack Obama (in Missouri , one of those battleground swing states Obama won)... the depth of my disillusionment with the Clinton's just dropped into that giant Texas sink hole. Watching the Clinton's abandon their idealism and all the work they did over the years to defend civil rights has forever altered my understanding of them. I earnestly defended Bill Clinton during his philandering in the white house as irrelevant to his ability to lead and let Hillary's "vast right wing conspiracy" lies slide as understandable defensiveness, but their behavior over the past few months is inexcusable and indefensible. Like Rev. Wright, the failure of the Clinton's understanding of the people of this country is that they view us through an outdated prism that sees our views as static and fails to recognize the progress that we've made. Instead of lifting us up, they chose to tear us down.

Although in the context of their lifework, these past few months of outrageous, divisive, race-baiting, rants may to some be relatively inconsequential - it is time that we denounce and reject the Clinton's.

In this time of global and domestic crises, we no longer have time for divide and conquer politics. It is time that we make that leap off the bridge to the 21st century, and unite to ensure that our children and grandchildren may inherit the promise of the American Dream.

[GingerB]

That was great! Thanks for posting it.

[4wehttam]

Couldn't have said it better my fellow American. Thank you for that.

Yes there is bigotry, prejudice, racism, misogyny, ageism, homophobia.......but like you said......WE ARE NOT STATIC.

We have made significant progress, but for the Clinton's to throw it back in our face is an unforgiveable insult.

[blaqntelligence]

I concur with all the above positive posters.

[ankjack]

Well written.

[CocteausTwin]

I am soon to be minority, I am white. Not that I care about race or gender, it was how I was raised in North Carolina. This statement of hers made me hit the roof. I used not to understand how people held such disdain for her during her husband's administration. I didn't care one way or the other. Then she moved to NY to become a Senator. Then everything became much clearer.

I knew in 2003 she would attempt the run for POTUS in 2008. I could not figure out why the Dem party would choose someone so polarizing for any hope of a win this year. But at the beginning of the race I thought we, the Dems, could not lose and about any of the Dem candidates would make a fine POTUS. Obama was my choice, but I thought Hillary would be OK if my candidate did not win.

Then when she claimed she had 35 years experience, I had a mission. Obama was our only hope to move forward. To regain some actual values for the country. If their are Dems that still believe that what she has done this entire campaign has been fine, you do not represent what I believe it means to be a Democrat. If hers are the Democratic party's new ideals, I do not want to a member any longer. But I believe more that if hers are your ideals -- please leave our party.

[sandiaview]

Hillary and Bill, I did not know you at all. How sad a legacy and lives.

[soundfury]

I SERIOUSLY SUSPECT that AtomicSplash is Rush Limbaugh incognito.

[AtomicSplash]

YOU ! Serious!? LMAO quit joking around.

[soundfury]

!?

[soundfury]

If you are coming here to express your outrage at Hillary's race baiting and come across ATOMICSPLASH, skip over this idiot. Don't throw your pearls at that swine!

[AtomicSplash]

HA HA HA HA... another one bites the dust

[soundfury]

Your reputation precedes you, as you can see. So glad you find it amusing.

[CarrieMN]

Sen. Obama was called on the carpet for several weeks endlessly in the MSM for his comments in San Francisco, the so-called "bittergate". Yet here is Sen. Clinton making a much broader statement that labels basically, only whites as "hard-working Americans", which is a huge insult to people of every other race in the U.S. Beyond that, her previous comments have suggested that only the votes of blue or white collar workers that form the base of her coalition are valid. An MD, surely one of the "elite" in this country, goes to school for a minimum of eight years, working long hours and often amassing huge student loans. Are they not hard-working? His/her vote is as important as that of a blue-collar worker. She worries about disenfranchising the voters of MI and FL when Obama wasn't even on the ballot in MI and neither state thought their votes were counting for the primaries; yet she is in effect disenfranchising the votes of youth, Hispanics, Blacks, upper income Whites, those with college educations, and the list goes on. By the way, I am a white female in my 60's and none of my friends, nor I, support Sen. Clinton.

[mamamay]

Hil worries not about the WC worker. She is after the vote to carry her over the bridge. It isn't working. We all have worked hard to reach this side of the economic crisis, among other issues. We need the truth and someone who doesn't snap at not crossing every t and dotting every i . We need Obama's and his mastery use of the dictionary. Look up the words cling, bitter..etc and they are just other words for example holding on and being angry. This appeared to be a put down on Obama as a man of color being educated, not just smart as Hil. When this primary is over, Many of us will rally around the Nominee and fight to beat McC. We can, and we Will/

[Nonamnesiac]

It is time for Hillary to be thrown under the bus by her supporters and by the Democratic Party. Her campaign has long been playing the race card, carefully tailoring it so that Whites would think her actions weren't racist even though Blacks fully understood the Clintons were attempting to paint Obama as a modern day Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton.

Her supporters defended her use of the race card and did what many Whites do -- make a decision that what Blacks find racist really is not racist. But this time, she went too far. Her remarks are outright racist and outright inaccurate.

Her supporters must demand that she publicly apologize for these remarks or they have simply decided to become allies in overt racism on her part.

[uheardme]

IF BARACK OBAMA SAID, I am better candidate because she can't get hard-working Americans, Black Americans and I have a broader base, WHITE PEOPLE wouldbe shitting themselves and calling him a bigot.

There are two different standards for these candidates and clearly Hillary's getting a pass on this.


THIS IS RACE-BAITING.

[lotuslike]

"Georgette Wallace, 2008---Return of the Dixiecrats"

Starring Hillary Rodham Clinton, on a campaign trail near you!

[clevelandtocali]

Apparently, I'm supposed to be supporting Hillary because I'm white and didn't go to college, who knew?

[egal]

Well, how dare you think for yourself just because you're not stupid and easily led, as certain elitists like to think people are who haven't gone to college (whether due to age or circumstances).

Maybe you can fake enough racism to fit in with that crowd. Or...continue to think for yourself and defy the uncomprehending (and mistaken) statistical reliance of the Clinton campaign.

[dollars2donuts]

For all of the HIllbots out there who keep attacking black voters who have voted overwhelmingly for Obama. I'm gonna say this one more time. Why do you overlook her constant racist dog-whistle statements? This is the main reason she is losing the black vote in droves, because we know dog-whistle racism when we hear it....and we also can't stand republicans. And HIllary has run the most right-wing, republican campaign I have ever seen from a Dem, it is quite a spectacle and quite a turn-off to most black voters. She leaves a very bad taste in our mouths.

[mamamay]

For crying ol, Obama is winning without hil's supporters now, He will surely do much better when she is out of the GE. Stop and think about it. Obama is doing just fine. He does not have to whine over the very few who will not vote for him. Keep the faith. Obama will beat McC in 08

[GoombahsMama]

Mamamay you seem like a nice person, FYI, when John McLSD brings Mitt Romney on board as his VP Obama will lose, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Maybe New Mexico and many others.

[Barbarossa03]

So we can infer from her comments that the only hard-working Americans are White Americans? So Blacks, Hispanics (there you Hispanics for coming out and supporting Clinton in droves, this is the payback you receive!), and the myriad other races that constitute the USA are lazy, non-hardworking Americans?

[MizLiz]

I spent 13 years as a bank teller and 32 years preparing income taxes. I will tell you all straight out, NOBODY works and saves like Asian folks. No exceptions. Seeing as how Mrs. Clinton has snooted them and all the others who don't fit her narrow definition, looks like she'll be slinking back into the Senate office building soon. I wonder if anyone will speak to her.

[sd4peace]

Good insight. It kinda caught me off guard, but it is true!

[ellen63]

I so wanted to support Hillary. But as a woman of her generation, I could not tolerate the idea of Bill bedding down in the White House yet again. He represents the era of sexual harassment that punished all too many women in the workplace. Perhaps this is why, too, that younger women, who won't countenance such behavior, didn't turn out in large numbers for her. That and Bill's shameless race-baiting. Patricia Burstein

[MizLiz]

Bill is a loose cannon, always full of himself and looking for new ways to dominate. He is the main reason I could never vote for Hillary. He would cause nothing but chaos and quite possibly scandal.

[Aywaller]

I understand your feelings, but at the time I also understood Hillary's request that we refrain from casting judgement and I accepted her decision to forgive his adultery. Bill Clinton is not the reason I cannot support Hillary Clinton. HILLARY CLINTON is the reason I cannot suport her. Whether Bill would be in the White House again or not, she has simply failed to earn my vote. That is what I think this election should be about.

[MizLiz]

Oh, that sounds so noble....but a serial adulterer? Getting it on with low-lifes? Hell, there's not even a love affair involved, just an itch. Any sane woman would never put up with that, unless she were one cold. calculating person who needed the husband for her own ambitions.

[Nana1234]

Hillary Clinton is a sour chameleon. She morphs into whatever, or whoever, she feels the particular audience wants to see.
She is divisive and has implied that it is Barack Obama's fault that Michigan and Florida voters are being punished. Nothing is further from the truth, he had no power to make that decision. Additionally, she agreed to the rules of the DNC. She is only looking out for herself, while attempting to convince us that her motives are for the people of those states. Please! It is truly sad that a good part of her legacy will be the ugliness she has shown in this primary. Attempting to hurt Barack Obama's chances, should he win the primary, by bad-mouthing him and praising McCain. Lying about Bosnia, lying about coming from behind in Indiana. These are just some the things she does. Why don't her supporters find that insulting? I think it insults all Americans. She is counting on the American people not to seek the truth, but believe her lies. As Barack does, I want to keep betting on the best of us. People like many here. Not all of us are there, yet, but I feel that most of Americans are good hard-working people who know character is more important than color. Those that aren't, should stay in their little corners and never travel the world, because they would probably have to associate with folks that don't look like them. Isn't that a sad thought.