I think she has a solid understanding of the dynamics in this race.
You can talk until you’re blue in the face about the new voters Obama has brought to the process, about the enthusiasm among students and his appeal to independents, but at the end of the day, if you’re a Democrat, you don’t win the White House without winning the votes of white, working-class voters in states like Pennsylvania and Ohio and New Jersey and, yes, West Virginia.
And while continuing the less than courteous blogging may help you work through your yayas …Ms. Estrich calls it accurately:
And you can call these people every name in the book, starting with racist, as some Obama supporters are prone to do, but questioning people’s motives generally is not a very effective approach to addressing their doubts or bringing them into the fold. Insults do not turn skeptics into supporters.
Back to “people like them.” Although it’s easy to blame it on race, it’s just as likely that it’s something else.
But the other is whether they think the candidate understands the problems of “people like them.” My guess is, given the polls I’ve seen and the results we’ve all seen, that is where Obama runs into problems with white, working-class voters.
They aren’t sure that the Illinois senator understands them, understands their lives and appreciates their values and concerns. And that’s not necessarily, or even primarily, an issue of race: It’s about values, philosophy, ideology and experience.
It’s about whether he’s too liberal, too elitist, too much the candidate of the well-off and the well-educated, of college students and their professors, of higher taxes and more help for the poor at the expense of working Americans.
Is he tough enough? Is he experienced enough? Does he understand both the pride and the fears of people who are getting by, but barely, who can’t afford to pay more in taxes, who are proud to be Americans, and wonder if he is?
Ms. Estrich offers better advice than all the talking heads put together.
Whatever role race plays in their concerns about him, it will do him no good to focus on it in addressing those concerns.
It is only by respecting these voters, not questioning their fairmindedness, that Obama will win the support from them that he desperately needs.
justin-credible says
Pot: Well hello Kettle, what are you up to today?
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p>Kettle: Well Pot, I thought I might fan the flames of this apparent party devide we have going on.
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p>Pot: Now why would you go and do something like that?
justice4all says
So you can keep pretending that the Grand Canyon is a divot?
bannedbythesentinel says
…no real difference in popularity between the two candidates in the “white, working-class voters” demographic to which you refer.
…and last but not least…
sabutai says
Those graphics look like the delegate spread between Clinton and Obama…
bannedbythesentinel says
lightiris says
for those heavily invested in fomenting discord by simultaneously decrying it, the information you provide–thank you, btw–is a bit of a body blow.
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p>As a side note, I suspect, however, that Ms. Estrich and others will not be deterred in their quest to remain relevant even when facts get in the way.
bannedbythesentinel says
;^)
lasthorseman says
We are 30 seconds away from WWIII and if that doesn’t happen we are entering a post oil/post modern life. It gets really cold here in the winter and I don’t think I could shoot enough Bambi’s to feed the family.
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p>Like most political themes these days, race, sex, left, right all have the marketing direction pointed towards and specifically designed to enhance the promotion of fascism. While it would probably take and entire thesis to illustrate what I really do mean but I have developed the mind saving filter of discounting the daily din just as “you people” shut me off at the mention of the word “Illuminati”.
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p>Obama BTW is the globalist’s favorite son, trust me you can kiss a hot shower on a cold winter day goodbye!
bannedbythesentinel says
I'm sure it will not be “shut down” and will get the full attention it deserves!
:^)
lasthorseman says
Do you still believe the ” official” government story on 911.
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p>Superclass by David Rothkopf details the rise of corporate power over governments worldwide.
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p>Websites all over the world are emerging documenting the failure of the “free press” fully exposing blacklisted topics and the broadcasting of propaganda coming out of socially engineered political think tanks.
http://www.projectcensored.org
Strategic Communications Laboratories
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p>Many of these “alternative” news sites are months ahead of Tee-Vee zombi-news. It’s more than a diary it should be a book.
bannedbythesentinel says
just encouraging you to lay it all out in detail.
Myself, I like to wait until the third month of a new presidency before I pull out the ashes and sackcloth to lament the fact that we did not realize an overnight revolution.
farnkoff says
and I take it They’re not fans of McCain or Hillary Clinton?
lasthorseman says
is called for. Will they hold the Bush administration accountable? No. Will they reverse the ever increasing corporate fascism in America? No.
The most destructive memes of the Bush administration simply become replaced by the most destructive memes of a “radical left”.
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p>Worldwide small arms bans
Feed the world programs
Global warming means global taxation
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p>Superclass explains why global elite business moguls really don’t care who “wins” as damage control can always be effected through thousands of equally powerful organizations. The prime directive though is to end America. Hey, do the math, 300 million screaming energy sucking brats vs 6 billion easily exploitable souls. The prize is world redistribution of our energy wasting habits and the elimination of this “we are free” concept.
You are CEO of the world, which profit margin would you pick?
borisevicius617 says
One of the things that angers me most about Obama and his supporters is the fact that they view themselves as global citizens and not Americans. I even hear he wants to give the UN a say in our government and make us pay a tax to them. Last time I checked, I was an American, not a global citizen. Although I care about world issues, I would never trade my nation for anything. What is wrong with these people, is it because they seem to benefit with a one world government. We all live in poverty while the economic elites call the shots. They give us global socialism where as we all are equally miserable while they continue to live in luxury treating us as if we were inferior to them. I tell you this, if Obama wins and tries to push this global crap on us, he might be surprised that some of us might fight to preserve our nation. .
sabutai says
Will he be traveling by black helicopter? Again, there are reasons to oppose Obama, but this sort of stuff isn’t it.
laurel says
just how many broad brushes do you have?
justin-credible says
I can’t find it. It must be hidden in all the false propaganda.
lasthorseman says
literally don’t fathom the reality of what they live under(yeah, Americans don’t know) because most have never lived in another country, experienced the ways of another culture.
My boss, a Russian says he has lived in two socialist countries, and he is right.