Hillary Clinton, whose liberal voting record is almost indistinguishable from Barack Obama’s, is now running to the right of him by reaching out to conservatives while her husband courts rural white moderates.
Bill Clinton has taken to calling himself Hillary’s “rural hit man” as he campaigns in the Appalachian regions of states that will soon hold primaries, including Pennsylvania and Kentucky — what Examiner columnist Chris Stirewalt dubbed Hillary’s “hillbilly firewall.”
Professor Laurie Rhodebeck of the University of Louisville said the Clintons are acutely aware that some rural whites are not ready to vote for a black presidential candidate.
“These people are pretty redneck,” Rhodebeck told The Examiner. “I don’t like the idea that some of the appeal might be to the baser instincts in the particular demographic that we’re talking about, but there’s probably a bit of that there.”
Professor Don Gross of the University of Kentucky said some Appalachian voters are wary of African-Americans, a fact not lost on Clinton.
“She correctly perceives that race will be a component of the election here,” said Gross, a Democrat. “I personally have no doubt that the Clintons are utilizing the race card in this election because they feel they have to.”
On Tuesday, Hillary Clinton sat down with conservative publisher Richard Mellon Scaife, long suspected by liberals as being at the center of what Clinton once called “a vast, right-wing conspiracy.”
“It was somewhat counterintuitive for me to be there,” she acknowledged afterward, adding that the encounter “was actually very pleasant.”
Clinton then granted an interview to Fox News Channel, a network that she boycotted when it tried to sponsor Democratic presidential primary debates.
Clinton’s campaign even distributed to reporters an article from the American Spectator, a conservative magazine that has long been a thorn in the side of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Citing remarks by Obama adviser Tony McPeak, the article concludedthat “Obama has a Jewish problem.”
