Convention Perspective: Obama needs to win over working-class women
By Peter Canellos, Globe Washington Bureauu Chief
DENVER -- When Democrats think of diehard Hillary Clinton supporters -- the folks that so many people at this week's convention are eager to appease -- they think of people like Representative Carolyn Maloney, the 60-year-old New Yorker and author of a new book called "Rumors of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated."
Maloney says she was driven to write the book after witnessing the sexism directed at Clinton during the primary-election campaign. Maloney, who represents a wealthy Upper East Side district, contends that society still punishes women who dare to think big.
Maloney and Clinton share a generational perspective on women's advancement, from overcoming society's limited expectations for girls, to coping with boorish first bosses who didn't want women in the workplace, to struggling for advancement in a political culture where women quickly get labeled as too soft or too hard.
Maloney's sympathy for Clinton may be based on hard experience -- but it's not going to prevent her or many other of Clinton's generational sisters in the women's movement from voting for Barack Obama.
Instead of worrying about feminists, the Obama campaign should be thinking about women like Laura Klein, a Denver nurse, who opted for Clinton over Obama because she believes that Clinton "doesn't suffer fools gladly." Having had a "front-row seat" in the health-care system, Klein said, she was convinced that Clinton had the best plan to deliver universal coverage.
"No one is going to pull her strings, like we have in Washington now with the Halliburton/Cheney machine," quipped Klein, in praising Clinton's battle-hardened realism.
As a healthcare professional, Klein is an economic rung ahead of many of the working-class women who crowded Clinton's rallies during the primary campaign, but her attraction to Clinton mirrors theirs.
The fact that many working-class women came out for Clinton in the primaries was a little bit of a surprise: During her husband's campaigns, Clinton was usually cast as the uptight product of ivy-covered Northeastern schools and an elite feminist sensibility.
But working-class women clearly saw something in her life story, and crowded into her events from the earliest days of the Iowa campaign. They often came in groups, sometimes with children. The women would hold up their kids, hoping to give them a glimpse of the candidate. Then they would crowd around her when the event was over, hoping for a quick word, an autograph, or even a hug.
Why the big attraction? A good guess is that Clinton was literal and grounded in her approach to issues, stressing the tangible benefits of her programs. (She frequently fielded specific questions about what would be covered under her healthcare plan.) And many working-class women said they felt that Clinton, as a woman, understood their struggles in a way that men might not.
Obama can't change his gender, but he should realize that stressing the tangible benefits he can offer families, and a realistic approach to solving the Big Three problems of energy, healthcare, and Iraq, might be enough to make sure these erstwhile Clinton supporters show up at the polls and vote for him.
There have been recent signals that he understands this message -- and some that he doesn't.
In the first few weeks after clinching the Democratic nomination, Obama went on the offensive against John McCain, slamming the Republican party on a range of bread-and-butter issues. But then, when Obama headed off on his overseas tour, punctuated by his giant rally in Berlin, it was McCain who took the offensive on energy, promoting off-shore drilling, and warned families that Obama would raise their taxes.
Obama's selection of Delaware Senator Joe Biden may be an acknowledgment that he still has a ways to go to win over white working-class voters; Biden hails from gritty Scranton, Pennsylvania -- the same city where Hillary Clinton's grandfather worked in a factory.
On Thursday, when Obama delivers his acceptance speech, he is sure to remind women voters that the next president will probably play a key role in shaping the Supreme Court, and that abortion rights hang in the balance.
That, by itself, will be enough to get most upscale feminists on board; but Obama will have to work a little harder to win over the working-class women who saw something of themselves in Hillary Clinton.
Shut up, I'm sick and tired of hearing it, winning over working class blue collar workers, middle class, what in the hell does that mean. Oh I know there is no blue collar black people, or black women, just angry white women and any white people, in other words, racist.
The Olympics was only the latest evidence that America is not as strong as she used to be. A communist country effectively used their rising middle-class to put on the greatest show ever AND win the most gold medals. There were just too few Moms’s and Dad’s like Michael Phelp’s or Shawn Johnson’s who’s sacrifice was enough to propel their kids to the top. The rest were too distracted by mortgage failures, medical expenses, gas prices and educational budget-cuts, all problems that grew during two+ decades of sharply rising corporate tax-cuts and profits.
This election is possibly the last chance to save the working middle-class and everything it does for this country. It is unbelievable that many voters are still voting based on identity politics..."my vote will only go to a 'woman' or 'war vet' or "someone more like me" Wake-up America. The election is not a popularity contest. It is your future.
Working class women need to know that Bill Clinton gave them NAFTA (loss of good jobs and health benefits) but lost them Congress!
If that weren't enough to hurt the working class, Junior Senator Hillary refused to vote against the 2005 Bankrupty Bill. This bill was literally the last nail in the coffin of the working and middle classes; it has already cost thousands of families with astronomical medical bills their homes, cars, and future wages. Hillary's refusal to denounce the Bankruptcy biil and vote against it indicates that she has the moral principles of a Hyena and the compassion of a flea. She's like a high school student council president who pretends to be your best friend.
As for Hillary's much touted "experience", being the wife of a governor and president does not qualify Hillaryto be president any more than being the wife of a surgeon qualifies my friend to be a surgeon. To cling the pants of your your spouse is dishonest and shameful. It's demeaning to women such as myself who make our own way in the world on our own merits. Hillary had 30 years to contribute something of her own to poor and the working class but she spent most of them chasing Bill's star. She's no different than "daddy boys" Bush and McCain,.who
Women especially need to stop voting with their ovaries and start thinking with their brains. Hillary has done more harm than good to working women and the poor.
Actually it *IS* a popularity contest...in the truest sense.
So wait, "working-class woman" and "feminist" don't go hand in hand?
Also, if a male writer is still putting words in women's mouths...then how much has really changed since the 1960's?
Seriously.
The Obamas and black people treating the Clintons as they did will come back to haunt them. The Clintons supportered the minorities more than any one in office yet the blacks turned their backs on them. Michelle hates Hillary.......no VP spot for Hillary. Well, now Michelle will either have to sleep with the Bidens or in the Lincoln Bedroom as the reason Biden was appointed VP nominee is so that he can answer that 3 a.m. phone call that Obama would not be capable of handling.
By the way, folks, is Obama a sleeper?
To true believing Obamabots, that anyone should doubt the qualifications of Sen. Obama is an example of racism. In their view, Sen. Obama is a transcendent figure , above politics,who and shouldn't have to address voter concerns.
The Obamabots are looking for the government to provide hope to their lives; they want a healing presidency, one that transcends politics and history. In the past, it hasn't been democratic regimes that advocated those values as a purpose of government policies.
In contrast, the white working class is more programatic. Not looking to government for salvation (rather to their church) but looking to gov't for better wages, a safer food supply, and more affordable healthcare, as examples.
The way the U.S. have been administered in the last seven plus years the Dems should win with a landslide. If it dosen't happen it means that the American people are happy with how things are going.
Hillary's supporters are not working women. They're spoiled whiney cry babies w/ an inflated sense of their own importance.
I mean how about those 6 years on the Wal-Mart board.
We cannot endure another four years of losing jobs, homes, healthcare and basic means of supporting ourselves. Obama represents change, another viewpoint and another option. Vote for McCain and you will be homeless, jobless and hungry. You figure it out.
McCain has no more experience then any other president that has stepped into office. He lacks the education, experience, and desires to enslave us into another fours years of pain.
People wake the hell up... I'm not interested in suffering any longer.
OBAMA NO EXPERIENCE, JUST TALK,
LIBERAL PRO ABORTION, FALSE CHRISTIAN
BIDEN PRO ABORTION FALSE CATHOLIC
NO LEADERS FOR AMERICA JUST TALKING HEADS, DANGEROUS!
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