...that Hillary Clinton keeps doing so well against John McCain, but Barack Obama doesn't? (See also here).
Seems to me this is a question the Democratic Party - and superdelegates - should be asking. But they aren't. There is now a fast-moving media train (NBC/MSNBC) driving Barack Obama straight to the nomination. And they are in a symbiotic relationship with the "liberal" blogosphere ("liberal" being a term I use very loosely these days, because it is primarily the liberal blogosphere that keeps creating an "us vs. them" mentality: African Americans vs. whites; young vs. old; urban vs. everybody else; "racists" vs. "progressives").
But here's some news for Barack Obama and his coterie of followers: Clinton's base of blue-collar working class voters understands that Hillary "gets it": the kitchen table issues - economy, jobs and job security, education, health care, national security, Iraq. They (like me) don't put much stock in soaring rhetoric with platitudes of "change" and "unity." We elect our presidents based on what their plans are for our concerns. What exactly does Barack Obama offer us? "Change." It's a great feel-good theme. We all want to feel better about ourselves and our country after the total mess George W. Bush has left for us. But I'm less concerned about whether Barack Obama will "change" politics as we know it and more concerned about his plans to deal with the crises we face. Here's a rundown:
- We are in a recession, complete with layoffs and weak consumer spending.
- We are in a housing foreclosure crisis that is hitting middle-class homeowners hard and affecting the value of neighborhoods like falling dominoes. Cities and states are feeling it, too, with shrinking budgets due to shrinking property taxes.
- Fuel prices are soaring with no end in sight. Some people can't even afford to put gas in their cars for job interviews. And if it hasn't happened yet, I expect there will be people who will soon have to decide between eating, taking their medications and putting gasoline in their cars.
- Food prices are soaring, also with no end in sight. And it is leading to instability in other countries and more hunger right here in the U.S.
- Health care costs are skyrocketing and 47 million Americans have no health insurance at all.
- We are in a lending crisis. Even those with good credit are having trouble being approved for loans - for everything from cars, to college, to homes. Credit has gotten so tight because of the problems with subprime mortgages and mortgage-based securities that lenders are instituting some of the most restrictive borrowing qualifications we have seen in years.
- We are bogged-down in Iraq, even though it doesn't garner much front-page news these days.
- Our planet is in peril.
Barack Obama barely talks about these problems. Instead, he goes from city to city garnering huge crowds and invoking the "change" theme, with grand talk about changing the way Washington does business. He's not going to let lobbyists influence his White House, he tells us. Really? Then why does he have so many lobbyists and "former" lobbyists working on his campaign, raising money, bundling money, advising him? He stands for "unity" - presumably reaching across party lines to accomplish something. Really? What exactly has Barack Obama accomplished in his short U.S. Senate career that constitutes "change"? I guess when you lack a solid resume "change" becomes a no-brainer for a presidential campaign theme.
Perhaps for these young and naive Obama followers,"change" is a balm. Most of these people have little understanding about how our government works or what it actually takes to achieve real "change." Even fewer have spent any time in Washington, D.C. - save for a vacation. And far fewer have ever been involved in the nitty-gritty of policy development - from its birth to its inception. All they know of Washington, D.C. is what they have been told over and over again. And that amounts to something like this: "The Government Is Bad; People Are Good." Sometimes I think the right-wing did a better job with their "anti-government" message than we ever imagined. To hear it come back - from young progressives, no less! - is stunning.
And in their good-bad dichotomy, they have decided that Hillary Clinton is "bad." And they attribute to her every negative, nasty, conspiratorial, secretive, underhanded, undemocratic, unprincipled action that has happened - going all the way back to her husband's administration and prior! For these people - and I am sorry to say that many, many "progressives" are among them - Clinton is hated almost as much as George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. It is often couched in language like this. I won't get into the blatant misogyny (right now) their attitudes and behaviors engender.
So it is with some satisfaction that I post the latest Gallup Poll findings:
PRINCETON, NJ -- Gallup Poll Daily tracking from May 20-24 finds Hillary Clinton maintaining a significant 49% to 44% lead over John McCain when registered voters are asked about their preferences for the fall general election, while McCain has a slight 47% to 45% advantage over Barack Obama.
A Quinnipiac poll finds that Clinton also beats McCain in the big three swing states:
Plagued by a defection of Clinton supporters and white working class voters, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama ... trails Arizona Sen. John McCain, the likely Republican candidate, in Florida and Ohio ... New York Sen. Clinton wins handily in all three states. No one has been elected President since 1960 without taking two of these three largest swing states in the Electoral College. Results from the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University polls show:
- Florida: Clinton tops McCain 48 - 41 percent; McCain leads Obama 45 - 41 percent;
- Ohio: Clinton beats McCain 48 - 41 percent; McCain tops Obama 44 - 40 percent;
- Pennsylvania: Clinton tops McCain 50 - 37 percent; Obama leads McCain 46 - 40 percent.
Now let's make some phone calls to South Dakota or Montana and/or let's make a contribution to Hillary's campaign.
"We are South Dakota youth who proudly support Hillary. She fights for issues most important to our generation. We support Hillary because she will make college more aaffordable. She will honorably bring the war in Iraq to an end. She will make sure that every American has health insurance. She will continue to fight for human rights. She will turn the climate crisis into an energy revolution. She will revitalize the economy. She will be a diplomatic powerhouse in the White House. Hillary Clinton has real solutions and will continue to be a voice for us.
Signed, South Dakota Youth for Hillary
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