by Lorianne Twill

Created on: May 07, 2008

Do a Google search this week and you will find photos of former first lady Hillary Clinton knocking back a shot of Crown Royal whiskey while visiting a bar with Hammond, Indiana mayor Tom McDermott during a recent campaign stop in the Hoosier state. Clinton, a millionaire used to living in a governor's mansion and the White House, is doing anything she can to appeal to her target "middle income working class families," as described in a recent television interview. But will winning the vote of these so-called blue collar workers earn Clinton the Democratic presidential nomination?

Instead of just making appearances and speeches on the campaign trail, Clinton has been turning her stops into connections with real Americans. From commuting to work and pumping gas with voters to sitting down around the dining room table of sheet metal worker Johnnie Parker and his wife, discussing her campaign issues in a cozy "kitchen table conversation" complete with neighbors, plates of cookies and plenty of cameras, Clinton constantly hits her key issues of jobs, health care and turning the economy around to help struggling everyday' Americans. Even her television ads reach out to her target audience, highlighting her dad's military service and her suburban upbringing, learning working class values helping out at her dad's printing plant.

During this final push of the primary season, Clinton says her campaign and all of her efforts center around making America the "land of opportunity again." While this does sound more like a sound byte or tag line than a platform, Clinton's brand of idealism has more of a practical focus than that of her opponent's, Barack Obama. Obama and his slogan of "reclaiming the American dream" aims to capitalize on the same issues as Clinton, but he seems to fall flat really connecting on a personal level. According to the most recent polls, his speeches and appearances resonate better with higher-educated voters who might share Obama's broader idealism and messages of hope because they are more removed from the blue collar struggle to makes ends meet. This has earned Obama the albatross of elitism.' In contrast, Clinton seems to be taking the tried and true political hand-shaking and baby holding to a whole new level, even creating a website dedicated solely to testimonials of her realness' at www.thehillaryiknow.com. And it seems to be working. In an ongoing Gallup poll tracking the Democratic nomination, Clinton has closed in on Obama's lead among Democrats and fares better in a general election against presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain that does Obama. She has rallied back after losing ground in the polls at the end of the first quarter of this year, most recently winning hard-fought primaries in both Pennsylvania and Indiana.

So it does seem that this woman who belongs in America's wealthiest class is making headway in her presidential bid by appealing to blue collar workers. Whether she is going after this constituency because she can capitalize on her husband's presidential popularity with the group to help her win, or taking this path because she truly does want to make America the land of opportunity again' remains to be seen. Whatever, the impetus, those blue collar workers are the voters who will give Clinton the edge in her presidential bid but will then also hold her accountable for all her promises to the struggling middle class as she continues her political career.

Learn more about this author, Lorianne Twill.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.