'CRITICAL SWING VOTE' TUESDAY IN TEXAS, OHIO
Article Launched: 03/01/2008 01:31:15 AM PST
For months, the story line of the 2008 Democratic presidential primary was women voters, black voters, Latino voters.
But a strange thing has happened on the trail to the Democratic nomination: Beginning most notably with Super Tuesday voting in California, and in subsequent contests leading to what could be Tuesday's final showdown in Texas and Ohio, white men have flocked to Barack Obama.
Meet Birney Young. The 63-year-old retired San Jose bounty hunter is not afraid to say what he feels: He can't stand Hillary Clinton and never thought he would support a black man for president. Now, he's sending $25 contributions to Obama, the most recent one to help him win in Texas and Ohio.
"I've surprised myself," said Young, who more typically casts protest votes for third-party candidates. "I'm surprised I care. It's the dream he talks about that has awakened me. It overcomes whatever color barrier I have had."
Come Tuesday, if Clinton is to keep her campaign alive, she not only needs to win women and Latinos by the huge margins that secured her victories in larger states, she also needs white men.
They are dubbed the forgotten voting bloc, barely mentioned in Super Tuesday analyses, but in recent weeks white males have become the soccer moms of the 2008 Democratic race.
http://www.mercurynews.com/localnewsheadlines/ci_8417812
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