Search:

SIOUX FALLS, S.D.—Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said Barack Obama’s support among working, white Americans has diminished. Her fresh comments about race dogged her Thursday as she pressed on with her struggling candidacy.

Her voice raspy, her tone determined, the former first lady raced into a long West Virginia-to-the-West Coast campaign day, declaring she would move forward with her presidential effort and insisting anew that she, not Obama, would be the stronger Democratic candidate to face Republican John McCain in November.

In an interview with USA Today published Thursday, Clinton noted that the coalition of voters who have supported her in the Democratic nominating contest had eluded Obama and would pose problems for him in the general election.

“Senator Obama’s support among working, hardworking Americans, white Americans, is weakening again ... there’s a pattern here,” Clinton was quoted as saying.

The Obama campaign did not respond to the remarks, which generated buzz in the liberal blogosphere.

Working-class whites overwhelmingly favor Clinton over Obama, and their view of the Illinois senator has grown increasingly negative since late last year, according to Associated Press-Yahoo News polling. In an AP-Yahoo survey a month ago, more than half—or 53 percent—of whites who have not finished college had negative impressions of Obama, up a 12 points since November.

Data from exit polls also show that Obama’s problem with working-class whites persists. About six in 10 of them voted for Clinton in primaries on Super Tuesday (Feb. 5) and earlier, and they have leaned toward her slightly more since then. On Tuesday, Clinton was supported by 65 percent of whites who have not finished college in Indiana and 71 percent of them in North Carolina.

With virtually no chance of catching Obama in the popular vote or among pledged delegates, Clinton and her strategists have pinned their hope on persuading superdelegates—elected officials and party activists—that she would be the stronger Democrat to run against McCain.

Harold Ickes, who heads the Clinton campaign’s outreach to superdelegates, has acknowledged discussing Obama’s controversial former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, with superdelegates, saying Wright’s incendiary anti-American sermons and other comments could alienate voters in the fall.

At a rally under the dome of the West Virginia Capitol, Clinton dismissed calls for her to drop out as “deja vu all over again.” She said she had faced similar pressure before going on to win primaries in New Hampshire, Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania.

She made her case for pressing on, and thanked her supporters for doing the same.

“A lot of you have stuck with me. You’ve been through all the ups and downs in this campaign, the biggest victories and toughest moments,” Clinton said. “I think it is because you understand that you’ve got to have a president who gets up every day and fights for you, who never gives up on you.”

Her fading chances didn’t diminish the loyalty of Evelyn Smith, 78, one of hundreds of supporters who jammed into the Capitol and waited nearly two hours to hear Clinton speak.

“It’s going to take a miracle for her to get the nomination, which I could sit down and cry about because I think she really deserves to be president and the first lady president,” Smith said.

Said Clinton as her audience cheered: “I’m running to be president of all 50 states. I think we ought to keep this going so the people of West Virginia’s voices are heard.”

In contrast to her confrontational comments in speeches leading up to recent primaries, Clinton’s only mention of Obama on Thursday was to say next Tuesday’s primary in West Virginia would be a test for both of them. She did highlight her strengths with various voting blocs through the primaries, an implicit comparison with her Democratic foe. She said the states she has won and the voters she has attracted are essential if the party is to reclaim the White House.

“We need to bring back hardworking people to the Democratic Party,” the New York senator said. “I’m winning Catholic voters and Hispanic voters, blue-collar workers and seniors. People Senator McCain will need in the general election.”

She added, “Some call you swing voters. I call you Americans.”