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!
