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Obama's appeal to working-class whites faltering, polls show
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Barack Obama's problem winning votes from working-class whites is showing no sign of going away, and their impression of him is getting worse.
Those are ominous signals as he hopes for strong performances in the coming week in Indiana and North Carolina primaries that would derail the candidacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton, his rival for the Democratic presidential nomination. Those contests come as his candidacy has been rocked by renewed attention to his volatile former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and by his defeat in last month's Pennsylvania primary.
In an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll in April, 53 percent of whites who have not completed college viewed Obama unfavorably, up a dozen percentage points from November. During that period, the numbers viewing Clinton and Republican candidate John McCain negatively have stayed about even.
The April poll -- conducted before the Pennsylvania contest -- also showed an overwhelming preference for Clinton over Obama among working-class whites. They favored her over him by 39 percentage points, compared to a 10-point Obama lead among white college graduates. Obama also did worse than Clinton among those less-educated voters when matched up against Republican candidate John McCain.
"It's the stuff about his preacher ... and the thing he said about Pennsylvania towns, how they turn to religion," Keith Wolfe, 41, a supermarket food stocker from Parkville, Md., said in a follow-up interview. "I don't think he'd be a really good leader."
Just before the Pennsylvania primary, Obama said many small-town residents are bitter about their lives and turn for solace to religion and guns.
Recent voting patterns underscore Obama's continued poor performance with these voters, who are often pivotal in general election swing states like Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
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Obama attacks Clinton's gas tax plan
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Broadening his attack, Barack Obama said Saturday that Hillary Rodham Clinton's support for a summertime break from the federal gasoline tax symbolizes a candidacy consisting of "phony ideas, calculated to win elections instead of actually solving problems."
"We've seen this from him before," the former first lady shot back as the next round of primaries approached. "Instead of attacking the problem, he's attacking my solutions."
Locked in a Democratic presidential race for the ages, the two rivals campaigned across Indiana and North Carolina. Obama eked out a seven-vote victory in the Guam caucuses half a world away, and he and Clinton both added to their delegate totals.
Obama campaigned across Indiana with his wife, Michelle, their daughters, Sasha, 6, and Malia, 9, in tow. It was a day any kid would cherish
-- an airplane ride, a visit to a playground while their parents campaigned nearby, capped off with roller skating to a blaring beat at Great Skates in Lafayette, Ind.
Clinton's 28-year-old daughter, Chelsea, often appears as a surrogate campaigner for her mother, but she figured in the race in another way during the day.
"Chelsea was a teenager in White House, which meant that the Secret
Service went on her dates," the former first lady recalled in a discussion
with several working mothers. "A lot of her girlfriends' mothers loved it
when they double-dated because there was a guy with a gun in the front seat," she said to laughter from the audience.
Laughter and little girls aside, the gasoline tax issue has emerged as a key dividing line in the days before next week's primaries in a marathon race.
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 Obama included a mention of it in a two-minute ad his campaign was airing as the two primaries wound down. He said in his speech that Clinton "had to send a surrogate to speak out on behalf of this plan and all she could find
-- get this, a lobbyist from Shell Oil to explain how this was going to be good for consumers."
Clinton saw it differently. Obama is "attacking my plan to try to get you some kind of break this summer," she said at one point.
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Obama wins close race, beats Clinton in Guam
HAGATNA, Guam (AP) -- Barack Obama defeated Hillary Rodham Clinton by seven votes in the Guam Democratic presidential caucuses Saturday. The count of more than 4,500 ballots took all night.
Neither candidate campaigned in the U.S. island territory in person, but both did long-distance media interviews and bought campaign ads for the caucuses.
Results of the count completed Sunday morning Guam time show delegates pledged to Obama with 2,264 votes to 2,257 for Clinton's slate. That means they'll split the pledged delegate votes. Obama's slate won in 14 of 21 districts.
Clinton issued a statement Saturday night promising, "I will continue to champion the issues facing the people of Guam, and when I'm president I will ensure that hard-working families of Guam have the resources and the opportunity to succeed." Obama's campaign had no immediate reaction to the results.
Eight pledged delegates will attend the convention, each with one-half vote.
U.S. citizens on the island, however, have no vote in the November election.
The territory also sends five superdelegates to the National Convention in August in Denver.
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THE DEMOCRATS
Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama campaign in Indiana.
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THE REPUBLICANS
John McCain has no scheduled public events.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"This is what passes for leadership in Washington -- phony ideas, calculated to win elections instead of actually solving problems."
-- Barack Obama voicing his opinion of the gasoline tax proposal backed by Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain.
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STAT OF THE DAY:
North Carolina's first primary was in 1920, but the state did not hold another until 1972.
[Associated
Press]
Compiled by Ann Sanner and Ronald Powers.
Copyright 2008 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
