Derided as being hopelessly showy and obvious, Mrs. Clinton has been working hard to appeal to the middle class voters. Yet polling results – for easiest perusal take a look at the USA Election Polls site that compiles polling data side by side for easiest comparison – indicate that the move is working. Alabama results show that from 27% in January she has skyrocketed to 38% in August, while Arizona's 27.5% went up to a respectable 39% in July.
Recent news of the foreclosure crisis that has rocked California and is also negatively impacting other states of the nation showcases that the former First Lady may have a firm finger on the nation's pulse while her detractors appear to have been somewhat blindsided by partisanship.
Using this change in political climate to her ultimate advantage, Mrs. Clinton is proposing signing an Employee Free Choice Act into law so that workers will be able to form unions quickly and easily without having to fear overt or covert employer sanctions. The more capitalist minded upper middle class middle and upper management employees are eyeing this plan with suspicion, yet Mrs. Clinton is well aware that this portion of the voting block is next to impossible to sway into her direction, and thus she aims squarely at the lower middle class. Promising universal healthcare, a raise of the minimum wage, and opposition to CAFTA, she woos the worker who sees her- or himself being outsourced, underpaid, and left holding the bag for the CEOs who are getting richer instead. Yet will her gamble pay off and will she be able to mobilize the sometimes sluggish voting block that is the lower middle class?
> View the online archive of the latest 2008 presidential polls.
