WP, Dionne: Clinton connected with people Edwards courts; "maybe prose wins elections after all"

A Shocker, in Hindsight
By E.J. Dionne Jr.
Thursday, January 10, 2008; Page A21

....it was women, and voters of modest means, who pulled Clinton back from the abyss. Women rejected Clinton in Iowa but not in New Hampshire. And the people Edwards courts were the ones Clinton connected with here. She defeated Obama soundly among voters in families earning less than $50,000 a year and among those who never attended college.

She also stole the mantle of empathy from Edwards. Voters who told exit pollsters that they made their choice on the basis of which candidate "cares about people like me" went strongly for Edwards in Iowa. On Tuesday, Clinton narrowly defeated Edwards in this group -- and overwhelmed Obama, 2-1.

Perhaps Hillary played the same trick on her critics that her husband, Bill, did in his epic State of the Union addresses that went on and on about one specific policy after another. Those speeches often got bad reviews but good poll ratings. At one campaign stop last week, as Hillary Clinton droned on learnedly about health care, family and medical leave, and global warming, a colleague in the press section leaned over to dismiss her for offering nothing but "a laundry list of wonkery."

But especially for less well-off voters, the specific things government can do to relieve a few of their burdens may be more important than Obama's soaring and prophetic rhetoric that moved the young and the affluent. To eat some of my own words, maybe prose wins elections after all....

(NOTE: Dionne is referring to the saying, referenced in a previous column, about campaigning in poetry, governing in prose.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/09/AR2008010902900.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

Thanks to George, there are a lotta young, but not so many affluent. He might want to broaden his appeal. Yuh know, with specifics.

importantly I believe he has hit nail squarely as regards the working class. As this economy sinks further during the year, the economic issues, particularly at the lower levels, is going to simplly overwhelm the other issues. Amn or woman cares squat about anything else until the family is fed.

And his noting that quirk about Obama polling much lower with "cares about people like me", and higher with the upper income group may turn out to be Obamas greatest weakness of all. Out of work or struggling families do not want or feel the need for feel-good soaring words of inspiration, they want paychecks!

Yes, all in all EJ has done a remarkably good job on this for an MSM hack. heheh