How Obama Won Blue Collars in Wisconsin

Bill carves rural niche, where 'it doesn't get complicated'

(NEWSER) - Urbanites in North Carolina prefer Barack Obama, while rural voters side with Hillary Clinton—which is why she spent all weekend trying to sway mixed regions like small cities and far-out suburbs. Obama, meanwhile, is counting on a hidden strength with country folk and his far-reaching publicity machine to win tomorrow's primary, the Charlotte Observer reports More»

Punditry ponders electability gaps, buyer's remorse, next moves for Obama

(NEWSER) - How bad is the Pennsylvania result for Team Obama and what does it mean going forward? Three writers think it through:

• “He can’t finish her off,” says Dan Kennedy in the Guardian. Obama scooped up presumptive-nominee status too soon, and now Americans have “buyer’s remorse”—realizing Clinton is the scrappier fighter. But it’s probably too late to tap the former first lady.

'She's talking like she's Annie Oakley'

(NEWSER) - As Barack Obama reiterated that he regretted calling American heartlanders gun loving and bitter, he also lashed Hillary Clinton for her reaction backing hunting, AP reports. “She is running around talking about how this is an insult to sportsmen,” Obama told a Pennsylvania audience yesterday. “She’s talking like she’s Annie Oakley. She's out there like she's on the duck blind every Sunday." More»

'Elitist' remarks could be turning point of campaign, Politico argues candidate's 'Dean Scream?'

(NEWSER) - The uproar over Barack Obama's description of small-town Americans as "bitter" has hit the candidate so hard that there's talk of a Hillary Clinton comeback, and Politico's Mike Allen can think of plenty of reasons why. For starters, Obama has alienated a swath of blue-collar voters just nine days before the Pennsylvania primary. More»

But working class frustration is real, candidate argues

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama acknowledged today that he’d chosen his words poorly when he said small-town working-class voters are “bitter” and “cling to guns and religion.” “I didn’t say it as well as I should have,” Obama said, but he insisted that working-class frustration is real. Hillary Clinton–who called the comments “elitist and out of touch”–and John McCain immediately pounced. More»