Hours of media time has been devoted to Mrs. Clinton's landslide wins in West Virgina and Kentucky and Mr. Obama's "problem" with white working class voters. Now David "Mudcat" Saunders, John Edwards campaign guru and expert on rural whites, weighs in. In today's The Sunday Telegraph Mr. Saunders urged the anticipated presumptive nominee against picking Mrs. Clinton for his running mate if he hoped to shore up his support with this critical demographic.
The 51 per cent of Americans that don’t like her, they don’t come from New York, they don’t come from California or Illinois or Massachusetts - the traditional Democratic states. They’re all in red (Republican) states and swing states. I wouldn’t put her on the ticket.
Not only is Mrs. Clinton a handicap when it comes to winning over rural whites, but they may not be as untractable to Mr. Obama as pronounced by the pundits.
He’s going to have to get the right message. He’s going to have to be out in rural America so people can get to know him. He’s going to have to put the resources in. If he does that, he’s going to beat John McCain’s ass. And you can quote me on that.
What Mr. Saunders says is nothing we, at Daily Kos, have said all along. Sure, there are racists who will never vote for a black man but as proven over and over again in Iowa, Vermont, Wyoming, Idaho and Oregon, given the time and money to get his message across, low income whites can be won over.