Everyday Voters, Not Celebrities, Rally for Hillary

If you turned on a TV in the days before the voting began in the Super Tuesday states, you would have thought that Barack Obama was headed for a landslide. On every cable news channel, and on the nightly network news, as well, there were reports of crowds gathering around the country to cheer on the Senator's campaign. Flip on one channel and there was California's First Lady, Maria Shriver, joining her cousin Caroline Kennedy and talk-show host Oprah Winfrey in Los Angeles to sing the praises of the Illinois senator. Push another button on the remote and there you would find Senators Ted Kennedy and John Kerry, joining Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick at a rally in Boston. Still on another channel, you could catch Oscar-winning actor Robert DeNiro and former senator and presidential contender Bill Bradley, flanking the candidate in the Meadowlands Sports Complex, all urging Garden State voters to get "Fired Up!"

What you didn't see in those TV reports or in the cheering crowds were the millions of ordinary Democrats who didn't manage to get on television but did go to the polls and vote. These are the voters whose lives and livelihoods depend on the outcome of this year's election -- the voters who care more about real results and a better economy than celebrity endorsements. They're the folks struggling to make ends meet, the people who have been hurt by seven years of a president who just doesn't care about them. And millions of America's working families turned out on Super Tuesday, just as they have in earlier contests. They handed election victories to Senator Hillary Clinton all across the country including a stunning upset in Massachusetts.

These are the voters who are working paycheck to paycheck, trying to make ends meet while health care, energy and food prices continue to climb. These are the folks who work hard and play by the rules and are trying to get ahead. They are the people in America who feel invisible, who feel that no one really cares about their problems. Celebrity endorsements and a candidate with a rock star persona are not what motivates them. Rather, they want a candidate who has solutions to the problems they face day in and day out, who hears their concerns and speaks for their interests. They have found that candidate in Hillary Clinton.

That's why when the votes were tallied late last night, Senator Clinton emerged victorious, including huge victories in New York, California, Massachusetts and New Jersey. Senator Clinton's message is working, in big states and small states, in red states and blue states. She carried states from coast to coast, from Liberty Island to San Francisco Bay. Even in states where she trailed in tightly contested contests, such as the bell-weather state of Missouri, Senator Clinton demonstrated that she can appeal to rural as well as urban voters. She carried 110 of the 115 counties in the "Show Me" state.

Senator Clinton's victories in New York, California, Massachusetts and New Jersey are tremendously important, because all are reliable blue states that Democrats must win to gain a victory in November. While the media may focus on celebrities and endorsements, the voters on Super Tuesday and in earlier contests this year have focused on issues, substance and solutions. In the states most important for a Democratic victory, they have chosen Hillary Clinton as their candidate. Delegates at the Democratic Convention will do the same.