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Go Meet Them, Senator
Obama has lots of time. He doesn't need to ride rodeo, or hunt if he doesn't like hunting. People know that the candidates running for president don't live just the way they live. But they want to know that they're understood, and that their daily struggles are respected. Obama should mingle. He should go to the states where he lost big: walk across Kentucky and West Virginia. He should take half a day and work as a fireman, a waiter, a mechanic.
He can't shy away from embarrassing himself. When Obama went bowling and shot a 37 (for seven frames, with the help of some small children), he should have seen that as an opportunity. He could have returned to the same bowling alley the next day to show how determined he was to improve. "I told you I'd come back," he could have said with a smile. "We're all going to come back and improve. We just need to address our challenges honestly and head on."
No Democrat has won a majority of the working-class white vote since LBJ in 1964. That's partly because some have been smeared as elitists. But Barack Obama is no elitist. He was raised by his mother and grandparents. Nothing was spoon-fed to him; he had to work, and he took advantage of educational opportunities. More than that, he used what he learned to help working-class people. He has to tell that story, an authentic American story that hardworking people can relate to. He just needs to get out there and meet them.
Ford, chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, is a former Tennessee congressman.
© 2008
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Member Comments
Posted By: Trying2see @ 05/29/2008 4:56:55 PM
Comment: Why doesn't Newsweek just come out and state flatly that it endorses Obama for President, judging by the frequent number of times Obama has graced the cover of Newsweek in the past two months. I have never seen such biased "reporting" about a Presidential Election. When my current subscription runs out, I will not renew.
Posted By: taubekat @ 05/28/2008 3:47:14 PM
Comment: People who live in glass houses should not throw stones. And you have never not ever done anything wrong or illegal your entire life later to regret and never do it again?
Posted By: Bossmaine @ 05/28/2008 12:48:12 PM
Comment: Enter YouMay 27, 2008
8:56 p.m.
[ Suggest removal ] bossmaine ( no real name given ) says...
We all need to stop buying into this political nonsense these canadites feed us when its time for elections. They all sing the same song year after year election after election about providing more jobs, Better healthcare, Tax cuts, Money for schools ect. The majority of us are hard working americans just getting by and the majority of congress are upper-class, wealthy, and are born/bread to get into congress seats like its a family business of some sort. So how could they know what's going on with the rest of america; We should be asking congress and the presidents "Why are we getting double taxed?" Most people dont even know how much the're are paying in taxes each month. The average american makes about 400 a week thats 1600 a month,take out 80 a week in taxes, 35 in insurance which leaves 280/290 wkly before you get a check in your hand, So thats around 1120 mthly. Now do you believe out of that 1120 a month you're paying anywhere from 175 to 275 in sales tax. Add all the taxes u paid that month and its probably going to be almost half of your gross. And where does that put U and me into a low income,high crime area. And half of those people who were making that 400 a week have now lost their jobs and are now waiting behind bushes and around corners to rob me for my few pennies. "Thanks Mr. Bush" The whole point i'm trying to make is to stop letting the news media and your favorite talk show hosts brain wash you into voting for someone bc they like or dislike the cannidate most of them come home to luxury not affected at all. We need a new beggining and thats why im voting for Barack Obama because i feel he is new. Hell if anyone else was new I'd vote for them too. The fact is we have the same people in congress just moving from seat to seat like a chess game. If we want to go foward in life we have to make a new beginging and get rid of the old "hell god got rid of everything old to make way for the new so why can't we." The same people in congress with the same old mentality, got us stuck in time with no way to advance to the future, or better yet look at it this way if you use a vaccum cleaner to clean your floor, over time the bag gets old and full of dirt: So what do you do? Put a new one in or it stops working right! That's what has happend to this country congress stop working "for us" As for that full of dirt comment take it as some are old as dirt and the others are dirty meaning "corrupted." Now it's time to put in our new bag. "Barack" and get rid of all the filth in congress. By the way someone tell Hillary Clinton to tell her husband we said thanks for the foriegn trade policy he passed "which shipped most of our jobs overseas" and then tell Hillary thanks for her vote which helped send our troops over seas not to long after that. You know for some reason the Clinton