Obama Aims to Keep White Voters on Board

[bobbyw24]

By LAURA MECKLER And CAROL E. LEE

PEOSTA, Iowa—President Barack Obama's Midwest trip this week has allowed him to address a central challenge for his re-election: His popularity has slumped among white voters—particularly young, poor and working-class Americans—as Washington has struggled to help boost economic growth.

On the first two days of his bus tour in rural Minnesota and Iowa, Mr. Obama has pitched a basket of long-discussed ideas, promoted small changes the administration can make on its own and promised to put forth a "very specific plan" in September to boost the economy, create jobs and control the deficit.

The moves are targeted at voters who supported the president in 2008 but now are shying away from him. That problem seems particularly acute for the president among white working-class voters, whose support was shaky in the last election and whose allegiances are traditionally dictated by their pocketbooks.

White working-class voters rarely favor Democrats, and Mr. Obama lost this group by 18 percentage points in 2008. But the Republican advantage widened to 30 points in 2010. Mr. Obama will need to narrow that gap to win re-election.


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904253204576512713681895884.html?m od=WSJ_article_LatestHeadlines

[bobbyw24]

Obama on small-town Pa.: Clinging to religion, guns, xenophobia

"And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."--Barack Obama April 2008

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0408/Obama_on_smalltown_PA_Clinging_religion_guns_xenop hobia.html

[bobbyw24]

The problem, Waters said, is that Obama is not paying enough attention to the problems of some black Americans. The unemployment rate for African-Americans nationally is a little over 16 percent, and almost twice that in Detroit. And yet, Waters said, the president is on a jobs-promotion trip through the Midwest that does not include any stops in black communities. "The Congressional Black Caucus loves the president too," Waters said. "We're supportive of the president, but we're getting tired, y'all. We're getting tired. And so, what we want to do is, we want to give the president every opportunity to show what he can do and what he's prepared to lead on. We want to give him every opportunity, but our people are hurting. The unemployment is unconscionable. We don't know what the strategy is. We don't know why on this trip that he's in the United States now, he's not in any black community. We don't know that."

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/black-caucus-tired-making-excuses-obama