Hillary Clinton Hunts an Elusive Prey: White Male Voters

[yallerdawg]

Source: New York Times, by Matt Flegenheimer

In a Rust Belt bus tour, Mrs. Clinton sought to chip away at Donald J. Trump’s chances by making up ground with the demographic group that likes her the least.

There is no group that views Mrs. Clinton with greater antipathy. A New York Times/CBS News poll two weeks ago found that white men preferred her Republican opponent, Donald J. Trump, to Mrs. Clinton almost two to one, 55 percent to 29 percent. (White women were split at 40 percent each.)

Yet in these two states, Ohio and Pennsylvania, which Mr. Trump will almost certainly need to win the presidency, Clinton aides sense an opportunity to put him on defense. They need not catch Mr. Trump among white men, or even come particularly close. But chipping away could be decisive, given their massive advantages among nonwhite voters in cities like Philadelphia and Cleveland.

In particular, the campaign is targeting college-educated whites, a group that Mitt Romney won handily four years ago. Mrs. Clinton’s relative success with this portion of the electorate has improved Democratic prospects in states like Colorado, where the Clinton campaign recently pulled ads in a sign of growing confidence. A recent CNN/ORC poll gave her a lead of five points nationally, 44 percent to 39 percent, among white voters with college degrees.

Clinton allies believe that surrogates like Mr. Kaine, Mr. Clinton and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. could be best positioned to make Mrs. Clinton’s case for her in front of wary audiences. Mr. Biden is scheduled to campaign with Mrs. Clinton in Scranton, Pa., his birthplace, on Aug. 15.

Read it all at: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/02/us/politics/hillary-clinton-white-male-voters.html?ref=topics

[PrideofJefferson]

1. Interesting experience

This past weekend I attended a going away celebration for a dear friend moving to Chicago. I got into a great discussion with one of the other attendees about Clinton and our favorite moments at the convention. We both had our favorites and it was a great discussion. Later in the evening I mentioned about trump and his rude comments about the Fire Marshall in Colorado. I said Clinton could use this to make ground with the middle aged, middle income white men. This is a hard working professional who is there to make sure all of the trump supporters are safe. What's not to like about this guy (just from what we know). Clinton could bash trump for criticising a guy who is there to make us all safe. This other party goer questioned why Clinton should care about white middle class men. I said that Clinton was running to be the President of all America but she evoked the larger "white privilege" argument. After that all I said was that I wanted to make sure that Clinton wins in November and she questioned if I was being sincere in that statement.

Part of me feels that this is not liberalism. This is something else that I am not familiar with. To say that a President shouldn't respond to and be aware of all of her constituents is just wrong.

[yallerdawg]

2. First, we need to put together a winning coalition.

Trump's base is white males. It's the Republican base.

I believe the key to pursuing the 'white male' has less to do with 'white,' and more to do with 'male.'

Hillary's surrogates will be all male. That's revealing, isn't it?

[oberliner]

3. The problem is that Trump is willing to lie to them brazenly

He literally says that he will bring coal jobs back and bring steel jobs back.

That is what these folks want to hear and want to believe.

The jobs aren't coming back, though, and when Hillary even hints at this reality, she gets in trouble.

Even if she talks about helping retrain these folks for different kinds of jobs.

The truth is that these places are in for tough times, and there is nothing any president can do about it (other than lie).

[geek tragedy]

4. the GOP is a white, male identity politics party--in that order

White males--most rightwing demographic group of voters
White females--fairly rightwing, but considerably more diverse in their political views
Non-white males--fairly reliable liberal/Democratic votes
non-white females-the Democratic base

Whereas usually the Republicans win all education levels of white men, this election cycle Trump is driving educated white males away while attracting some more uneducated white males with his populist politics of cultural resentment.

[brush]

5. We have, and can, win without catering to that demographic group (see '08 and '12)

Not to mention that progressive whites are part of the two-time, election-winning Obama Coalition — many progressive whites are male.

We'll be ok. If Hillary can pick up some of the voters in that target group, even better.

[yallerdawg]

6. *Update* New York Times edits headline.

Hillary Clinton Targets a Skeptical Crowd: White Male Voters

The original title gave the impression mean ol' feminists were "targeting" men?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/02/us/politics/hillary-clinton-white-male-voters.html?_r=0