Here’s an interesting theory on why Clinton won’t win the Washington caucuses tomorrow:
With Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama engaged in a fight for delegates to the national convention, the state of Washington’s 78 pledged delegates are highly coveted by the two Democrats. Mr. Obama has been organizing in the state for nearly a year, with five offices here. Mrs. Clinton has spent as much time here as he has, and began running a television advertisement this week, focusing on health care.
But Mrs. Clinton, who has not done as well in the caucus states as Mr. Obama has, winning only two of nine so far, suggested that she did not expect to win in Washington, as many of her supporters would be too busy working to break away from their schedules and spend the time to caucus for her.
“If this were a primary, where everybody could vote all day, I’d feel pretty good about it,” she said. “But it’s not. It’s a caucus.”
The caucuses are taking place at 1pm on a Saturday afternoon. I don’t know what it is about Hillary’s base that makes them disproportionately more likely to be at work at that time than Obama’s base. Your guess is as good as mine. On the surface, the comment doesn’t make any sense at all. Yet, the clear implication is that Obama’s voters are all unemployed.
I understand the need to lower expectations and all that, but this just continues a pattern of disrespect that I long ago found worse than troubling, but disqualifying. What is it about Obama, after all, that makes Clinton think that his base doesn’t work? Do you have good explanation for that?
I’ve been thinking about it and I don’t know what she could possibly mean other than black people don’t work. Of course, were talking about 1 o’clock on a Saturday afternoon. A lot of people don’t work on Saturday afternoon. But you know who does? Service workers…waiters, dishwashers, line-cooks, hotel maids, taxi drivers, mailmen, etc. These are the kind of people the Clintons tried to disenfranchise in the Nevada caucuses. And they don’t necessarily prefer Clinton over Obama.
Mrs. Clinton’s advisers spent Friday trying to lower expectations for her performance not just in the Washington caucuses, but in nominating contests throughout February.
“The states in play this month do favor Senator Obama,” said Howard Wolfson, a Clinton spokesman, during a conference call with reporters. He cited Mr. Obama’s endorsements and his lead in the polls in states like Virginia. “We feel considerably better about the states on March 4.”
Presumably on March 4th it won’t make any difference that Clinton’s supporters have jobs and Obama’s don’t.
