Dana reports on Barack Obama's potential demographic problem:
February's post-Super Tuesday primary schedule obscures Obama's central demographic weakness, one that could come back to haunt him in the crucial March and April contests of Ohio, Texas, and Pennsylvania: In the more populous, heterogeneous states where Obama's victories have been narrower or where he came in second, Hillary Clinton consistently outperformed him among white and Latino working class voters. In Clinton's most significant Super Tuesday pick-ups, New Jersey, California, and Massachusetts, her margin of victory as much as doubled among voters making less than $50,000, as well as those without college degrees.
Ohio, Texas, and Pennsylvania all have significant populations of working class whites, and Texas' Democratic electorate is also over a third Latino, a group that has heavily favored Clinton. Each state is about 10 percent black, as is Missouri, where Obama eked out just a 1 percentage point win last week.
Some supporters worry Obama is doing little to retool his message to reach the demographic groups that have challenged him. His talk of "hope" and "change" could sound risky to blue collar voters more comfortable with the known quantity of the Clinton name. And Obama's recent attempts to frame his urban community organizing experience as a credential for turning around the economy could be a misfire. The average American is simply unfamiliar with the vocabulary of social justice work, and many white working class voters in particular—the vast majority of whom live in suburban and rural areas—feel disconnected from the problems of the inner city.
Read the rest (and comment) here.
--The Editors
