Barack Obama seems to have regained much needed momentum after his impressive showings in last week's election. He did way better than anyone expected him to and came close to scoring a major upset in the Hoosier State that certainly could have locked this race down for good. He has been receiving very good press since and it's now almost universally accepted that he will be the nominee of the Democratic Party as declared by veteran journalist Tim Russert. However amid all this good news for Obama, I sense that there are real problems stalking his campaign that may come back to haunt him in the general election unless he addresses and dispel them now. I am not talking about that nefarious Rev. Wright, he is spent force. The overwhelming majority of Americans now see what a radically different person Wright is from Obama and only the sluttiest of right wing lunatics will still try to tie the Senator to this self-deprecating idiot. Besides Obama's great performance in Tuesday's primaries indicates that he has, by and large, managed to overcome this controversy.
What I am actually talking about is Obama's continued poor showing among white working class voters. The so called lunch-bucket, blue collar democrats including demographics such as white women and seniors who have been the bedrock of Hillary's campaign. The results from the North Carolina and Indiana Primaries seems to have highlighted this trend as he lost these groups heavily to Senator Clinton by margins as big as 3 to 1 in some cases. Hillary pointed this out in that now controversial interview she did with USA Today and she was lambasted by the media, especially the blogosphere for what they called an obvious attempt on her part to play the race card. For those of you out there who still hasn't heard what she said, here is a short video of her comments:
I agree that what she said definitely had some race baiting to it and you could probably infer that the Clintons are trying once more to dismiss Obama as the black candidate who cannot attract white voters. We know on the face of it that this argument is total b.s. as Obama has won in overwhelmingly white states and would probably not have a problem attracting these same voters in the fall. On the other hand, we cannot automatically dismiss Senator Clinton or the point she was trying to make though it is convenient to do so. The exit polls speak for themselves, Obama does have a real problem with white working class voters and if he doesn't try to address this problem now he will have a major headache this November. He has a strong coalition of young people, upscale whites and African Americans but it will probably not be enough to crush the crooked Republicans who are hoping to give Bush a third term using their Trojan horse McCain. He definitely needs to attract a bigger margin of the white working class vote than he doing is now; it's crucial if he is to win in November.
Hillary has successfully branded herself as a fighter, a stand up kind o gal who will be a champion for the average Joe or as tweety put it "the daughter of Scranton". Obama in some sense is still viewed as a relatively unknown figure or worse yet an elitist by red blood America. Sure, he is a nice guy, an extraordinary speaker, a visionary and such but that alone won't win you the presidency in this great land, you gotta know how to fight, roll up 'em sleeves and get down and dirty if the situation demands it. That's exactly what have attracted so many people to Hillary throughout this campaign. I mean people who wouldn't otherwise give her a second look just a few years ago. Say what you will about Hillary but you've gotta give her a tip of the hat for this incredible fighting spirit and resiliency that has become a trademark of her character.
There are many Democrats out there like myself who believe in the promise of Obama. A lot of us are former Hillary supporters who have been turned off by her destructive style of campaigning; we want to move wholesale over to the Obama camp (we are very much like the Super-Delegates) but their is still this specter of doubt in our minds surrounding the Senator from Illinois. Personally, I would like to see Obama display a more intense fighting spirit. I get the feeling that he is way too rested and cool. I'm not saying he should go very negative against Hillary (save it for 100 year McCain) but he's gotta learn how to land a good punch. He's gotta learn to fight when his back's up against the wall. I thought he did well in the recent primaries but that's not good enough, there is no reason why he couldn't score an upset victory in Indiana. I want to see him going toe to toe with Hillary for the white working class vote, he should not allow her to claim this important demographic as her own.
Why for heaven's sake is he ignoring West Virginia for example. I am very unhappy with this, it strikes me as rather defeatist in nature. Sure we know that West Virginia is a white rust belt state tailor made for Hillary but does that mean he should concede it to her. Obama is probably trying to play the expectations game here but isn't he making the same mistake that Hillary made after Super Tuesday in ignoring ensuing states like Washington, Nebraska and Louisiana that were heavily favored for Obama.
Hillary went straight to West Virginia after her supposed 'victory' speech in Indiana. According to a Newsweek report, Obama has yet to book a trip to the state since Tuesday's Primaries. Yes you might counter that Obama basically has the nomination locked up so he can afford to ignore a state like West Virginia which he wont win anyway but what you don't understand is that this is a psychological warfare which is almost as important as the delegate race itself. The polls show that Hillary already has a massive lead over Obama in the state and will, in the most likely of scenarios, humiliate him in the Primary next Tuesday. This will no doubt give more fuel to her argument that Obama can't win over white working class voters so she is the more electable.
I believe Obama would at least have a chance to narrow the gap if he campaigned in the state. Let's say he went in and kept the margin of defeat down to 10% (some polls show Hillary with a 40% lead over Obama currently), he'd have all the right to spin that as a good thing for his campaign and a sign that he can win over a sizable portion of the blue collar vote. Instead the Obama camp has pretended as if there is no upcoming primary in West Virginia, focusing instead on Oregon, a State which everyone already expects him to win. I know his campaign is trying to play the expectations game and they think that ignoring West Virginia would somehow diminish a crushing defeat but that doesn't sit well with undecided Democrats like myself, the Super-Delegates or the American public for that matter. Obama still has something to prove, he can't afford to ignore an important state like West Virginia whether he is seen as the presumptive nominee or not and that's my point.