Obama’s tune up..

 

Barack Obama said today that he’s going to fine tune his campaign in order to reach those low income, white voters that will be critical to winning the presidency come November after losing them by a pretty high margin to Clinton, once again, this week in Pennsylvania.

Obama as I have said on numerous occassions and in earlier blogs needs to reach out and connect with this demographic on their terms and in their communities in order to make inroads into Clintons’ base.

In order for Obama to win this constituency he must convincely and sincerely convey who he is and what he stands for since many even at this late stage still claim to have little or no knowledge about Obama.

Now, I don’t profess to know the inner workings of a presidential campaign or any political campaign but I do believe that if a candidate has had consistent problems with a particularly crucial demographic, like Obama has had with the white working class, he/she should work harder and consistently speak with the members of this group in order to understand why he/she isn’t at least breaking even with their opponent especially if they are both offering pretty much the same policies and ‘promises’.

This is what Obama needs to do.

He should be doing more impromptu stops. He should be greeting the farmer in his fields. The waitress at her dinner and the construction worker on the job site. And more importantly he should look comfortable doing it. He sometimes looks as though he doesn’t know what do in those settings and it comes off as if he’s uncomfortable around everyday folk he can’t appear that way anymore. This is the end game. And in the end game every thing matters.

His novelty, has started to wear off and he’s now got to show them, the white working class, why he’s the best and only man for the job and not just some black guy, with a Harvard degree and a funny name who is the democratic party’s flavor of the month.

I concede Obama, may never win the majority of them over completely for a number of reasons including race.

But, if he fights tooth and nail with Clinton and then McCain for every single white working class vote and he’s willing to convey that he understands and show that he respects that God and guns sometimes go hand in hand in many places in this land, without compromising his own core positions on specific issues like gun control I’m willing to bet the same people that are now voting for Clinton and have voted for a Republican in almost every single presidential election since 1977, wouldn’t ‘hold their noses’ and vote for him come November but will actually on voting day march to the polls in greater numbers than we expect and cast their ballots in support of the black guy, with a funny name because they know that he’s the best man for the job and he earned their votes and their respect just like any other candidate.

Ultimately, for the first viable black presidential candidate it boils down to if he can earn their respect he’ll gain their vote!

 

 

 

Clinton wins, Obama comes close in Pennsylvania primary….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clinton will win Pennsylvania tonight, of that there is little doubt.

However, I want to see how close Obama comes and how well he does with white voters who make below $50 000 that demographic will be crucial come November when Obama is the nominee if he improves on his numbers since the last two primary elections in Ohio and Texas there is hope that he can bring that solid democratic base home but if he loses John McCain might be the beneficiary of those democrats come November.

In Texas and Ohio, Clinton carried 55% of voters who have less than a college education. In contests in Wisconsin, Maryland and Virginia, she won just 36%-43% of those voters. She carried 61% of white voters in Ohio and 55% in Texas.

Obama should not cede these voters unless he plans to massively increase the numbers among two of his coaltions’ core group young people and progressive baby boomers. And I don’t believe there is much room for improvement among these groups so he has to expand his coaltion.

And he could do it here with these traditional democrats.

The white women in this particular demographic might prove extremely difficult to win over since I do believe that a number of them will feel slighted and burned and some out of resentment towards Obama might..MIGHT stay away from the polls in a misguided effort of protest come election day but the men are still fair game..

Obama might just be able to win them over to his side even before then but we’ll have to wait and see but Pennsylvania will definitely help to give us a clearer picture on how things might break down come November..

As usual I’ll be up live blogging the results and if you can, stay up and join me it’s going to be a hot, hot night and frankly it’s about damn time I was getting bored..lol..

 

Obama and the white middle class, how to connect with and win them over if he can..

For the past few days I’ve been listening to the pundits discuss Obama’s speech and whether or not his speech connected with the average white working man or woman in the United States.

And if the pundits are to be believed Obama’s speech failed to or resonated very little with the average middle class woman or man and based on some recent polling Obama is slipping in the polls against Hillary and John McCain among democrats nationwide.

This fact is not surprising. With all the negative attention and flak Obama has received in regards to his pastor’s comments and his association with the pastor, Obama who was already lacking support in that demographic has sustained even more damage.

However, I believe that Obama can sway more working class white democrats to his side if he changes the way in which he is trying to connect with them.

At the moment Obama is hoping that his message and his delivery of that message will sway these voters and I’m sure his campaign staff, more knowledgeable people than myself, have already microtargeted this group however their strategies clearly aren’t working.

Obama may secure the nomination without significant support from these specific democrats but he cannot win the general election without them!

When discussing the American working class, I’m reminded of a passage from the book One Nation After All by Alan Wolfe in which he states;

“From a middle class point of view, the ideal society would be one in which everyone-immigrants, minorities, the poor-would uphold middle-class values so that someday they might obtain middle-class incomes..that’s another way of saying that their solution to class inequality is to insist on moral equality..”

And I must agree that this is what I have found to be the case as well.

Most white working class Americans want to believe that ultimately life is fair, you might get some bad breaks here and there but in the end if you work hard enough, follow the law, have faith in God and take pride in your country, family and community you will be a success.

They don’t believe most people are deserving of handouts or charity in large part due to their immigrant backgrounds which in many cases has taught them to suck up their problems and issues and just deal with them.

Unfortunately this is where the disconnect between Obama and his message to the white working class is occurring.

Obama’s values are not translating into their world instead what is translating is a perception that he’s receiving undeserving adulation. Many would probably claim that they don’t even know what he stands for and not his stance on the issues but what he stands for as a MAN and this in many ways is contributing to Clintons’ success among them.

Clinton has had the luxury of time to convey who she is and what she represents and her husband’s legacy doesn’t hurt either. Obama unfortunately has neither but I believe that if Obama talked about his life, his struggles, his demons,this would resonate more with working class whites more so than anything else he may have to offer, at this point in time.

If I were an Obama strategist (I’m hoping to get a call anyday now…lol) I would advise him to talk more about himself and and what he has been through when he’s in Pennsylvania and other predominantly white working class states because these voters are crucial to winning in November.

Undeservedly so, this week, millions of America started to question whether or not Obama shares one of their core values-patriotism.

However if voters and in particular white middle class voters perceive, long term that Obama does not share their core values (patriotism, faith in god, freedom just to name the critical three) he will be soundly defeated come November.

He cannot allow this to happen.

So in the end he must rely on who he is as a man to convince those who are skeptical of him of his policies and the direction in which he wants to take the nation.

That is what I believe will ultimately sway these voters to support and follow him.

Clinton won, a crying shame.

Clinton won in New Hampshire, this week because uneducated, lower income white women sympathised and related to her and her so called ‘human moments’. 

I don’t believe for a minute that Clinton’s tears were real. Those tears were planned and dropped on cue.

Her team told her simply if you want to win you have to connect and you have to connect big and she chose to connect with the one group that would sympathize with her-women particularly uneducated women. 

I just have one question for my female friends out there for arguments sake let’s say you found out while you’re on the biggest job interview of your life 10 mins before you meet with the interviewer that your partner is cheating on you, you’re about to get evicted and your mother is dying of cancer would you let the interviewer know that you couldn’t handle the pressure by tearing up and letting them know that your problems are getting to you or would you simply be energetic, engaging and articulate and do all the things required of you during the interview because so much would be riding on doing well and getting the job?

I think most women would chose the latter regardless of what was going on in our lives we would suck it up and deal with it put on the game face and keep on moving. 

Now, I can’t say or would I ever say that it’s unacceptable for a woman to tear up in public..we’re women we cry at times.  I just don’t think Clinton is that type of woman. Clinton has never, ever shed a tear in public under any other circumstances and they have been numerous occassions in her life that would have forced you and me to our knees and forced us to tear up a bit but she never has NEVER until last week.

Listen, Clinton suffered and endured the public defeat and humiliation of her first major national policy initiative the Clinton health care plan, in public-no tears. She’s watched and repeatedly endured her man’s embarassing philandering in public-no tears (before, during and after that ordeal I would have needed a whole damn truckload of Kleenex).  She suffered and endured half the public’s particularly Republican hatred of her and her family-in public-no tears. She’s had media investigation after investigation into her private and public life, Ken Starr’s investigation the list of ordeals goes on and on and yet at a diner in New Hampshire she decides to show us that she’s a woman like you and me, she feels, she’s human too..come on give me a %^&* break?

As my mom would say, ” Those crocodile tears aren’t going to work with me baby,”

Clinton says she’s found her voice, what I will say is if she keeps playing to this demographic she surely might find a way to win, if they fall for it each and every time but I’m willing to bet on the old adage that goes fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me and guarantee that she wouldn’t have the opportunity to use her crying game again.