A closed visit to Rush's birthplace: bitter clinger land.
Obama Politics in Cape Girardeau
AUDIO: Barack on the Rush Hometown Tour | Shanklin
Posted on 05/14/2008 1:40:25 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Barack Obama is in hot pursuit of general election voters, hoping America won't notice he got his head handed to him in West Virginia. The Illinois senator virtually pretended the primary didn't happen Tuesday, with no election night speech or any public appearance at all after the polls closed and gave Hillary Rodham Clinton (web|news|bio) a more than 2-1 victory even though her candidacy is likely doomed.
At Obama's Chicago headquarters, advisers said there was no reason to worry - West Virginia was demographically suited to Clinton and won't be part of their general election plans. It's also true that Clinton's win is unlikely to slow his march toward the nomination - Obama picked up 30 superdelegates this week, more than the 28 total pledged delegates up for grabs in West Virginia.
But maybe the Obama camp should be more worried. The voters who went against Obama Tuesday night - white, rural, older, low-income and without college degrees - don't just live in West Virginia. They live everywhere in the country, in places Obama needs to win.
They live in places like Macomb County, Mich., where Obama planned to start his day Wednesday by dropping by a Chrysler plant. That's a recognition that he has work to do to win over working class voters even if his campaign doesn't say it.
Obama's daylong visit to Michigan will be his first campaigning there since he signed onto a pledge nine months ago to boycott the state. He pulled his name from the ballot in the state's illegitimate primary, held too early for party rules.
That means many voters in the state are just starting to get to know Obama, said Bill Rustem, president of Michigan think tank Public Sector Consultants.
"There's a lot of excitement among young people and among African-Americans, which should serve him well," Rustem said. "There still are questions among older white people that I think he's going to have to try to appeal to them in some way, shape or form. I'm sure that's in part why he's coming to Michigan - to begin that process."
Obama's campaign leaders say they are confident most of these Clinton voters are Democrats first and will support Obama once the primary is over. In a memo before the polls even closed, they said conclusions cannot be drawn about the general election campaign from the results of the Democratic primaries and pointed out that head-to-head polls between Obama and McCain show Obama is running as well as past Democratic candidates among white voters.
"These people are Democrats," said Democratic consultant Steve McMahon, who is not working for either candidate. "They will come home."
Clinton's advisers said she planned to use her big victory to try to persuade uncommitted superdelegates during a meeting at her home Wednesday that she would be the strongest nominee in the general election.
"It is a fact that no Democrat has won the White House since 1916 without winning West Virginia," Clinton said in her victory speech. "The bottom line is this: The White House is won in the swing states, and I am winning the swing states."
The Obama campaign also said in its memo that Clinton also will likely win handily next week in Kentucky. His saving grace is that Oregon votes on the same day and is likely to give Obama a big win to balance it out. A double shellacking for Obama would have had him limping to the nomination.
I am just a typical white person, clinging to guns and religion because I am so bitter about my lot in life, but I will work my heart out to keep Barry the Closet Muslim from ever reaching the Oval Office.
And I am just one typical white person...
I thought her name looked familiar, so I looked it up. She's taken a lot of heat for the way that she has handled Dem candidates. They don't consider her a friend.
Yeah, they weren't even impressed when puffy dad doo diddy told them to vote or die.
I dunno, maybe he should have said vote or no beer bong.
And Nedra is black. big shocker.
Your kidding? From who the communist china newspaper ?
BUMP!
I dunno. That’s a pretty big ego.
Even Dick Morris was saying that the West Virginia win was a big win for John McCain, that Obama has got to be worried about the fact that he is not only losing the blue collar vote, he’s losing ground among the college educated voter block. Morris said that this race showed that Obama cannot win the key states that the Democrats need in September. He can’t win, PA, Ohio, West Virginia, and Indiana.
Gee, I wonder what would have happened if Clinton had said North Carolina was "demographically suited" to Obama?
Hillary would have been pilloried (heh) for "playing the race card".
with 29% of democrats supporting a Hillary Clinton INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE RUN, Obama should be worried.
He should also be worried about closet surprises.
Wright is still a fiasco.
NOBODY credible believes he and his wife do not buy the black liberation theology. NBC pundits were trying to spin it as “he does nto believe this” but the talking hair styles don’t get the fact that nobody buys the MSM bs.
(perhaps that DC airport suvenier shop should not have discounted Hillary stuff at 40% after all)
The fact Obama had to “address” Rush Limbaugh speaks volumes.
Obama is not attacking McCain.
Obama is not attacking the GOP.
Obama had to go after Limbaugh.
The RNC should be humiliated. Somebody needs to wake McCain up from his morning nap.
And he's probably right. The Party Of Pander need only make a few of the customary noises and the sheep will fall into line. But this year they do have to make the right noises, and a tyro like Obama bleating about bitter people clinging to guns and God is definitely not making the right noises.
thanks, I missed the Shanklin parody. I was working off the CNN commentator infront of his big touch screen who was making a HUGE point about the zeroing on the fact that Obama went to the state, to the town, that was the home town of Rush.
Regardless, I think the next step is going to be how much is obama willing to pay of Hillary’s debt to get her out of the race.
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