H
Harry Dope
Guest
April 16, 2008
Fight Leaves Democrats Questioning Prospects
By JEFF ZELENY
The battle between Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama over
whether Mr. Obama belittled voters in small towns appears to have hardened
the views of both candidates' supporters and stirred anxiety among many
Democrats about the party's prospects in the fall.
For five days, as Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama have tangled more ferociously
than at almost any point in the last year, interviews with voters in
Pennsylvania suggested little new movement toward either side as the primary
campaign there entered its final week. A snapshot of public opinion, a poll
by Quinnipiac University, showed no change in the race from a week ago.
"There's a lot of truth to what he said," said Ezar Lowe, 55, a pastor at a
church in Ambridge, Pa., a city along the Ohio River that has been steadily
draining population since steel mills began closing two decades ago. "I've
seen it."
The closing week of the Democratic primary race in Pennsylvania is awash in
fresh accusations of elitism and condescension. After sparring over those
topics from afar, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama will come together Wednesday
evening at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia for their first
debate in nearly two months, which will be televised nationally on ABC.
Cindy Phillips, 54, a flight attendant from Leetsdale, Pa., said she had
intended to vote for Mrs. Clinton before the latest feud developed. But she
said her position was solidified by Mr. Obama's remarks that many small-town
Pennsylvania voters, "bitter" over their economic circumstances, "cling to
guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them."
"He just doesn't know Pennsylvania," Ms. Phillips said in an interview.
"People here are religious because that's their background, not because they're
mad about jobs."
For six weeks, Mr. Obama had diligently worked to introduce himself to the
voters of Pennsylvania. He visited small towns and factories, bowling alleys
and beer halls, with every picture designed to allay any concerns that
voters harbored about his presidential candidacy.
Now, though, advisers to Mr. Obama wonder whether those images - and, more
importantly, the political gains that even his detractors believed he was
making in the state - have been overtaken by criticism over what his rivals
suggested was a profound misunderstanding of small-town values.
On Tuesday, as Mr. Obama campaigned about 30 miles south of Pittsburgh in
Washington, Pa., he said he was "amused about this notion as an elitist."
Asked by a member of the audience if he believed the accusations were
racially motivated, he said no, adding, "I think it's politics."
It is a diverse state, but the voters that seemed the toughest for Mr. Obama
to win over were the same ones that had helped Mrs. Clinton defeat him in
Ohio: working-class whites, especially those in regions that have suffered
through decades of economic decline.
These Reagan Democrats - people who might lean Republican on national
security and social issues but who look to Democrats on the economy - could
determine whether Mrs. Clinton performs strongly enough against Mr. Obama in
Pennsylvania for her campaign to continue.
They are also helping to test the limits of Mr. Obama's appeal, a skeptical
focus group that to varying degrees has become a proxy for his ability to
calm concerns about his race, his values and whether he can connect with
voters beyond the Democratic Party's base.
"It seems he's kind of ripping on small towns, and I'm a small town girl,"
said Becki Farmer, 32, who lives in Rochester, Pa., another Ohio River town
hit hard by the closed steel mills. "That's where your good morals and good
judgment come from, growing up in small towns."
Indeed, advisers to Mr. Obama concede, his job has been made that much more
complicated by his remarks about bitterness among small-town voters. Though
it remains unclear what effect the episode will have in the long run, it has
suddenly prompted a series of questions - and worry - from Democrats about
whether Mr. Obama could weather a Republican onslaught in the fall, should
he win the presidential nomination.
In Pennsylvania, as well as coming primaries in Indiana and North Carolina,
did Mr. Obama provide another excuse for white voters to voice qualms about
his candidacy without acknowledging that it is his race that troubles them?
If he defeats Mrs. Clinton, will accusations of elitism dog him as they have
previous Democratic nominees? Does Senator John McCain, the presumptive
Republican nominee, suddenly have an issue that will resonate for the next
six months?
It is the criticism from Republicans, though, that worries many Democrats. A
senior adviser to Mr. McCain, Steve Schmidt, told reporters on Tuesday that
Mr. Obama's comments were "condescending and elitist" and that they would
keep up the criticism "for the duration of Senator Obama's candidacy."
Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama seemed to back away from criticizing each other
in their respective campaign appearances Tuesday, after days of intense and
personal confrontations. Again and again, Mrs. Clinton had branded Mr. Obama
as an elitist, while Mr. Obama had mocked Mrs. Clinton as "talking like she
is Annie Oakley," after she waxed nostalgically about shooting guns.
Yet television commercials from both candidates continued to broadcast the
charges, ensuring that the debate will almost certainly flare until the
primary on Tuesday. It also offered Mrs. Clinton a fresh rationale to make
to superdelegates that Mr. Obama is a flawed general-election candidate.
That, however, is precisely what troubles many voters in Pennsylvania and
beyond.
"I wish they would just go into a corner and figure it out and quit
fighting," said Dave Davis, 52, an electrical worker from Oregon, who heard
Mr. Obama speak at a union rally on Tuesday but is undecided between the
candidates. "Taking shots at each other isn't doing anybody any good. It
will only help Republicans in the end."
Sean Hamill contributed reporting from Pennsylvania.
--
"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno."
Fight Leaves Democrats Questioning Prospects
By JEFF ZELENY
The battle between Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama over
whether Mr. Obama belittled voters in small towns appears to have hardened
the views of both candidates' supporters and stirred anxiety among many
Democrats about the party's prospects in the fall.
For five days, as Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama have tangled more ferociously
than at almost any point in the last year, interviews with voters in
Pennsylvania suggested little new movement toward either side as the primary
campaign there entered its final week. A snapshot of public opinion, a poll
by Quinnipiac University, showed no change in the race from a week ago.
"There's a lot of truth to what he said," said Ezar Lowe, 55, a pastor at a
church in Ambridge, Pa., a city along the Ohio River that has been steadily
draining population since steel mills began closing two decades ago. "I've
seen it."
The closing week of the Democratic primary race in Pennsylvania is awash in
fresh accusations of elitism and condescension. After sparring over those
topics from afar, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama will come together Wednesday
evening at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia for their first
debate in nearly two months, which will be televised nationally on ABC.
Cindy Phillips, 54, a flight attendant from Leetsdale, Pa., said she had
intended to vote for Mrs. Clinton before the latest feud developed. But she
said her position was solidified by Mr. Obama's remarks that many small-town
Pennsylvania voters, "bitter" over their economic circumstances, "cling to
guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them."
"He just doesn't know Pennsylvania," Ms. Phillips said in an interview.
"People here are religious because that's their background, not because they're
mad about jobs."
For six weeks, Mr. Obama had diligently worked to introduce himself to the
voters of Pennsylvania. He visited small towns and factories, bowling alleys
and beer halls, with every picture designed to allay any concerns that
voters harbored about his presidential candidacy.
Now, though, advisers to Mr. Obama wonder whether those images - and, more
importantly, the political gains that even his detractors believed he was
making in the state - have been overtaken by criticism over what his rivals
suggested was a profound misunderstanding of small-town values.
On Tuesday, as Mr. Obama campaigned about 30 miles south of Pittsburgh in
Washington, Pa., he said he was "amused about this notion as an elitist."
Asked by a member of the audience if he believed the accusations were
racially motivated, he said no, adding, "I think it's politics."
It is a diverse state, but the voters that seemed the toughest for Mr. Obama
to win over were the same ones that had helped Mrs. Clinton defeat him in
Ohio: working-class whites, especially those in regions that have suffered
through decades of economic decline.
These Reagan Democrats - people who might lean Republican on national
security and social issues but who look to Democrats on the economy - could
determine whether Mrs. Clinton performs strongly enough against Mr. Obama in
Pennsylvania for her campaign to continue.
They are also helping to test the limits of Mr. Obama's appeal, a skeptical
focus group that to varying degrees has become a proxy for his ability to
calm concerns about his race, his values and whether he can connect with
voters beyond the Democratic Party's base.
"It seems he's kind of ripping on small towns, and I'm a small town girl,"
said Becki Farmer, 32, who lives in Rochester, Pa., another Ohio River town
hit hard by the closed steel mills. "That's where your good morals and good
judgment come from, growing up in small towns."
Indeed, advisers to Mr. Obama concede, his job has been made that much more
complicated by his remarks about bitterness among small-town voters. Though
it remains unclear what effect the episode will have in the long run, it has
suddenly prompted a series of questions - and worry - from Democrats about
whether Mr. Obama could weather a Republican onslaught in the fall, should
he win the presidential nomination.
In Pennsylvania, as well as coming primaries in Indiana and North Carolina,
did Mr. Obama provide another excuse for white voters to voice qualms about
his candidacy without acknowledging that it is his race that troubles them?
If he defeats Mrs. Clinton, will accusations of elitism dog him as they have
previous Democratic nominees? Does Senator John McCain, the presumptive
Republican nominee, suddenly have an issue that will resonate for the next
six months?
It is the criticism from Republicans, though, that worries many Democrats. A
senior adviser to Mr. McCain, Steve Schmidt, told reporters on Tuesday that
Mr. Obama's comments were "condescending and elitist" and that they would
keep up the criticism "for the duration of Senator Obama's candidacy."
Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama seemed to back away from criticizing each other
in their respective campaign appearances Tuesday, after days of intense and
personal confrontations. Again and again, Mrs. Clinton had branded Mr. Obama
as an elitist, while Mr. Obama had mocked Mrs. Clinton as "talking like she
is Annie Oakley," after she waxed nostalgically about shooting guns.
Yet television commercials from both candidates continued to broadcast the
charges, ensuring that the debate will almost certainly flare until the
primary on Tuesday. It also offered Mrs. Clinton a fresh rationale to make
to superdelegates that Mr. Obama is a flawed general-election candidate.
That, however, is precisely what troubles many voters in Pennsylvania and
beyond.
"I wish they would just go into a corner and figure it out and quit
fighting," said Dave Davis, 52, an electrical worker from Oregon, who heard
Mr. Obama speak at a union rally on Tuesday but is undecided between the
candidates. "Taking shots at each other isn't doing anybody any good. It
will only help Republicans in the end."
Sean Hamill contributed reporting from Pennsylvania.
--
"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno."
