HRC's Win in NH: The "Invisible Americans"

I can't stop writing about this - it's a politics geek's dream!

I'm convincing myself more and more that polls missed and/or filtered out a lot of the working-class women vote in New Hampshire.

Here's a Boston Globe piece from late November on working-class women as HRC's "backbone" of support. Clinton has been very consciously and actively courting this constituency. In New Hampshire, it looks as if working-class women came to the polls for a primary election like never before, and it looks as if even the Clinton campaign was surprised.

But the Clinton campaign most definitely knows and appreciates this backbone. From HRC's New Hampshire victory speech:

"Too many have been invisible for too long. Well, you are not invisible to me. The oil companies, the drug companies, the health insurance companies, the predatory student loan companies have had seven years of a president who stands up for them. It's time we had a president who stands up for all of you. I intend to be that president, to be a president who puts you first, your lives, your families, your children, your futures ... There will be no more invisible Americans."

What about that bit about predatory student loans? Well, check this out from an astute commenter at Open Left:

Obama took Hanover (Dartmouth College)by an amazing 1,500 votes (2700 votes to 1200). That's a precinct that had it all from Obama's perspective with youth, education and wealth. It's not just money either, it's upper crust money. Meanwhile, at the more plebeian University of New Hampshire (Durham) precinct, Obama managed per the Concord Monitor a mere 500 vote edge.

Clinton won with the invisible (to the polls) working-class women vote, and brought in the less "upscale" younger vote to boot.

An incredible victory, and very likely repeatable unless Obama can give voters some concrete reasons to vote for him. Platitudes about "unity" don't cut it for people who worry about paying the bills.