In final push, Clinton seeks rural white men's votes

Having lost her advantage, or most of it, among women voters, Hillary Clinton has focused on Ohio's rural and blue-collar men -- "a crucial swing vote who could make the difference in tomorrow's primary here -- and a group that's proven implacably hostile to her over the years," reports Glenn Thrush of Newsday. (Associated Press photo by Mark Duncan)

Writing from Youngstown, Ohio, for the Long Island newspaper, Thrush sets the scene this way: "The Rebel anthem 'Sweet Home Alabama' -- which proclaims 'Watergate does not bother me' -- found its way onto Hillary Clinton's loudspeakers here yesterday. The music at Clinton's events is typically you-go-girl rock, but it's been given a testosterone boost in Ohio, with the addition of Lynyrd Skynyrd, John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

"The switch reflects the Clinton campaign's focus . . . Clinton's aides believe that a substantial number of undecided voters, who now make up 8 to 10 percent of those eligible to vote in the Democratic primary, are working-class white men. . . . Her campaign sees a real opportunity to pick up undecided white male voters in the Appalachian eastern part of the state, rural western counties and rust belt towns in the north."

A big part of Clinton's pitch to this target group is the argument that she is more qualified than Barack Obama to be commander in chief. Her campaign "touted her endorsement by 25 high-ranking military officials," Thrush notes, adding, "Obama made his own pitch to rural voters in the Appalachian region yesterday during a small town hall in Nelsonville focusing on his plan to develop 'green jobs' to replace the region's vanishing smokestack industries." (Read more)