Clinton's support slips among white women

[NJSecularist]

http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/story/1035477.html

LEVITTOWN, PA. - Like many women over 50, Paula Houwen was eager to vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton for president.

"I was impressed when she was first lady. She wasn't the country's trophy wife," the 56-year-old suburban Philadelphia pharmacist recalled.

Today, though, Houwen is no longer a Clinton fan.

"I do not like the way Hillary Clinton has run her campaign," she said.

Clinton's strongest core of support -- white women -- is beginning to erode in Pennsylvania, the site of the critical April 22 Democratic presidential primary, and a loss there could effectively end her White House run.

A Quinnipiac University survey taken April 3 through 6 in Pennsylvania found that Clinton's support fell 6 percentage points in a week among white women.

Nationally, a Lifetime Networks poll of women found that 26 percent said they liked Clinton less now than in January, while only 15 percent said they liked her more. The poll, conducted April 2 through 7, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percent.

An Associated Press-Ipsos national poll released last week also showed Clinton losing her advantage among women. In February, 51 percent of Democratic women supported Clinton while 38 percent were for Obama. In the new poll, conducted April 7 through 9, they were about even, at 44 percent for Clinton, 42 percent for Obama.

"These are Democratic women who waited all their lives for a woman president, but Hillary is not turning them on," said polling analyst Clay Richards.

The Clinton campaign is aware of the danger, and last week it began dispatching friends of Clinton from New York, Washington and elsewhere to key Pennsylvania communities to have "living room chats" with women.

"We thought this might happen," senior Clinton adviser Ann Lewis said of the erosion. A key reason, she said, is rival Barack Obama's ad barrage, notably his gentle but persistent reminders to TV viewers that he is well-equipped to heal the ailing economy.

"I can't overcome the media barrage, so we need to go back to talking to people about their personal concerns," said Lewis, "and emphasizing her experience."

The most familiar echo among many Pennsylvania women when they discuss Clinton, however, is disappointment. Ask them when they became disillusioned with the woman who would be president, and they can cite almost the exact moment.

For Clare Howard, a meditation teacher from Southhampton, it was the night in January when Bill Clinton suggested that Obama did well in the South Carolina primary because of his race.

That went too far, said Howard, 60. "It was like they would do anything to win," she said.

Joan Schmidt, 60, a school psychologist in Levittown, grew tired of hearing Clinton tout -- and exaggerate -- her experience.

Another demographic that is tired of Hillary's Tonya Harding strategy.

[dkf]

1. I think women like the idea of a woman President until they become familiar

with Hillary.

And when they see how flawed she is, they realize that voting for her strictly because of her sex is a bad idea.

[JI7]

2. that's the problem with Hillary, she LOSES support as more get to know her

Obama is the opposite. the more people see him and get to know him he gains support.

[dkf]

4. Isn't that the truth. I was supporting the Clintons before I found

the internet and learned what was really going on.

Now I have no excuse.

And the more I hear from Obama the happier I am.

[Triana]

3. I'm a white woman and she's lost me....

...same reasons - I do not like that she's essentially in political bed with McSame and with the GOP, I do not like the way she has run her campaign. It's turned dirty, desperate and low - and yes, it's similar to a "Tonya Harding" strategy. Personally, I've had enough of that kind of politics from bu$hit and the GOP. NOW - to see it from a Democratic candidate - is a total turnoff.

And if ANYONE is out of touch with American values and ideals, it's Clinton, the GOP and McSame - all of whom I am beginning to see as - well, the McSame.

I'm voting Obama. I want someone DIFFERENT, who's LISTENING to what I say and who understands my concerns, instead of someone who is screeching about and leeching off of what someone ELSE says - and ignoring the problems I face every day as a working American. She can't help with those issues if she doesn't even know what they ARE - because she's too busy attacking someone else who dared to mention it.

As I said, I've had enough of that oblivion from bu$hit, Inc. and the GOP for the last 7 years. To now get that same dirty, desperate, lowdown oblivion from a Democrat is just unacceptable. Period.

I'd have liked to support Hillary. But no. I just can't now.

[dkf]

5. You're right. I've started lumping Hillary in with "them"

and all the hideous right wing rhetoric I've heard over the last so many years.

Its easy when they are all making the same arguments.

[Triana]

6. She sides with them and uses their talking points...

...supports NAFTA unmodified (helped create and get it passed in fact) and supported the IWR. She has resorted to the same dirty, cheap tactics the GOP uses to "win". She's as good as GOP to me. I was undecided but...not now.

[SeattleGirl]

7. I'm disappointed, too.

When Edwards dropped out, and I had to look at Clinton and Obama, I really didn't know which way to go. Thought I might just hang back, and then vote for whichever of them got the nomination, because in many ways, their policies are pretty similar.

Over time, though, I came to see that Clinton was willing to do anything and everything in order to win, and I find that a huge turnoff. As I said in another thread, I was certainly not expecting a tea party by any of the candidates on either side of the political aisle, and I know very well that politics can be a dirty business.

But I think that Senator Clinton has stepped over the line in her attacks on Senator Obama. This latest thing, "bitter-gate" really pisses me off. Yes, I do think that Senator Obama could have phrased it in a slightly better way, but I do get what he meant. No, what bothers me, what pisses me off, are two things:

1. This happened almost 2 weeks ago, but according to information I've read hear and elsewhere, the Clinton campaign was sitting on it, in order to use it as a "bomb" just before the PA primaries. So what? you may say. Well, if it was such a terrible, awful, nasty thing for him to say, why didn't the Clinton campaign jump on it right away? Would it have changed what he said? No. No, I think it is just another chunk of the kitchen sink that the Clinton campaign likes to use. It's ugly, is what it is.

2. When Senator Clinton said that all she sees is optimism in small-town PA, I have to wonder if she's really looking. Optimism? Really? Sounds more like blindness to me, and it doesn't ring true. Senator Clinton likes to say that she's "one of us". Well, she's not one of me, if she thinks that everyone running around in the country is optimistic. No, I don't live in Small Town, America, but I grew up in one in Oregon. I've seen what happens when jobs go out the window, when prices soar. No, I don't think she's acting like "one of us." (And for the record, I don't care that much that she and Bill made the money they made last year, but I do care that she seems to be trying to be something she's not.)

[NJSecularist]

9. You are 100% correct. Obama is only speaking the truth. Hillary should be better than this. n/t

[southern_belle]

8. k & r