Obama Advisers See Need To Improve His Efforts With Blue Collar Voters
With the Hillary campaign portraying Obama almost daily as culturally out of touch with blue collar folks, a debate is unfolding inside Camp Obama as to how he can improve his efforts with those voters:
In strategy sessions last week, advisers concluded that Mr. Obama, of Illinois, needed to do a better job reminding voters of his biography, including his modest upbringing by a single mother and one of his first jobs as a community organizer helping displaced steel mill workers. He also has to sharpen his economic message, they said, to improve his appeal and connection with voters in hope of capitalizing on the sensibilities that served him well in Midwestern states.Mr. Obama's advisers are also debating whether he should give another major speech intended to lay out themes of his candidacy -- particularly the change he would bring to Washington -- that they fear have been muddled in one of the toughest months of his campaign.
As a result, Obama advisers are viewing Indiana as crucial in not one, but two respects. A win there could trigger more super-del movement towards him. But perhaps more importantly, it could take the steam out of Hillary's efforts to use his difficulties with blue collar whites to paint him as borderline unelectable.
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