Hillary Clinton’s going hard at Barack Obama this week after her very disappointing Tuesday. She’s pointing to her success with white working class voters as an indicator that she is in a better position to win the presidency.
“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.”
“There’s a pattern emerging here,” she said…
Obama spokesman Bill Burton said that in Indiana, Obama split working-class voters with Clinton and won a higher percentage of white voters than in Ohio in March. He said Obama will be the strongest nominee because he appeals “to Americans from every background and all walks of life. These statements from Sen. Clinton are not true and frankly disappointing.”
This sounds to me like a Bittergate in reverse. Are the only “working, hard-working Americans” white and blue-collar? And are statements like this racially divisive? “Working, hard-working Americans, white Americans?” I say hell, yes. She says, “These are the people you have to win if you’re a Democrat in sufficient numbers to actually win the election. Everybody knows that.”
Obviously, Hillary Clinton isn’t the first one to separate the electorate into blue-collar white workers in Hillary’s corner and educated voters in Barack Obama’s corner, and we all know this to be true to some extent, but her wording (and her interpretation and presentation of the facts) leave something to be desired, even if it is not in the least bit surprising. According to exit poll data, Barack Obama won, in both Indiana and North Carolina, first-time primary voters, liberals, white 17-29 years olds, all 17-29 year olds, and all 17-64 year olds. I’m sure many of those people would describe themselves as hard-working Americans, white or otherwise. This is in addition to the fact that Obama is doing far better with white, working class voters than Clinton is doing with black voters. If winning the majority of the 17-64 year-old vote in two, very different states doesn’t sound like the makings of a major coalition, I don’t know what does.
Editor
Keep sipping Hillary! I know you need to numb the pain…
I’ve read that no Democratic presidential contender has carried more than 40% of the white working class vote since the 60’s, including Bill Clinton. So you can win the race without them. Hillary’s husband did it.
What I do admire about Hillary is that she is a fighter til the bitter end…Obama give her a spot somewhere when you win…she’s apparently a hard worker despite the odds!
Hillary do not drink it. The guy in the white shirt (an Obamanite) put something in it. That is not foam that got you looking so strangely at the cup, it is residue.
Dag. How transparent. Why won’t the pundits just cut to the chase. Her real message to that portion of America is “I’m white just like you. It doesn’t matter if you are on food stamps andsneezewemade$109millioninthelast7years, I can relate to you… much unlike that uppity negro fellow.”
J, I want you to know that you are not the only one who has picked up on her message.
That message wasn’t for us, unless there are any superdelegates lurking around here. I doubt very much these sorts of things sound convincing anymore.
You wrote: “This is in addition to the fact that Obama is doing far better with white, working class voters than Clinton is doing with black voters.”
You just did what you accuse her of doing.
Who said she is doing bad with the black voters. I wanna see some real figures. I am not listening to the media anymore. They lied during the Bush/ al gore ballot so yeah.
Is she only being nice to the hard-working whites because she NEEDS them? Everyone knows her views change with the wind. Just wait until there is a new population that she needs, and she’ll twist like the wind again. Hilary is annoying and ridiculous!
@ Lexi,
It’s OK for Lauren, the media etc to point this out. HRC is a LEADER. She is supposed to be uniting the country NOT diving it!
It now is plain to see that Hill and Bill have finally put their long time white cracker, bigot, racist thing in full view. F**k them. Their desperate play of the white backlash card has revealed that they were always dishonest, self serving opportunists who were never true friends of the Black Community and only sought our votes to advance their personal power. Their time is way up and you will soon see Bill out of Harlem, never to return. Later for them bums.
Black Power…Intellectual,Economic,Political & Physical,forever.
so, it seems as if Team Clinton’s true colors are coming out. Whites are hard working Americans.What does that make Black voters?
The Clintons ,like the democratic party, has taken the African American vote for granted. We always knew the Republicans didnt care nor wanted anything to do with Black folks and their votes, but the democats pandered to African Americans and sadly, Black folks blindly followed the democratic leadership, only to be folled time after time.
Hillary really put the plan out there this time,what Lie will she and “Slick Willie” come up with to excuse her statement this time.