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Obama's Momentum Runs Into Speed Bump of `Archie Bunker' Voters
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Race
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| Contributor | Scott³ |
| Last Edited | Scott³ Mar 06, 2008 07:16pm |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Friday, March 7, 2008 01:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Bloomberg article.
An excerpt...
"Barack Obama is having trouble with Archie Bunker.
The white, blue-collar voters personified by the 1970s fictional television character cost Obama this week. His Democratic presidential rival, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, beat him 54 percent to 44 percent in industrial Ohio, and 58 percent to 40 percent in predominantly white Rhode Island.
In Ohio's 10th district of Cuyahoga County, a suburban enclave on Cleveland's west side that includes a large population of Polish-Americans, Clinton trounced Obama 61 percent to 37 percent, according to exit polls. In the state's Belmont County, an economically depressed Appalachian border area that is predominantly white, she had a 50-point lead over Obama, the first black candidate to have a shot at the White House.
``Race played a significant factor in Ohio,'' said Cuyahoga County Commissioner Timothy Hagan, who supported Obama. The state's white voters aren't ``bigots, but the image they see every day of black America is drugs, crime, guns and violence.''
Clinton's March 4 victories in contests in Texas, Rhode Island and Ohio -- and just one defeat, in Vermont -- pumped new life into her candidacy after 11 consecutive losses to Obama. She now has renewed momentum heading into the next big test on April 22 in Pennsylvania, where the electorate looks much like Ohio's.
The weak showing among the white working class in Ohio and Rhode Island reflects a larger vulnerability for Obama, said Joe Trippi, a former senior strategist for John Edwards, who had broad appeal among those voters until he dropped out of the Democratic race last month.
Obama, 46, has ``had a problem with lower-income, downscale, blue-collar Democrats from the beginning,'' Trippi said. ``He typically appeals to better educated, upscale Democrats.''
Ohio exit polls show white Democrats voted for Clinton 70 percent to 27 percent, while black Democrats voted for Obama 88 percent to 12 percent." |
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