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Clinton stumps for wife in N.C.
He swings through several small towns
Journal Photo by Bruce Chapman
Bill Clinton stumps for his wife at Glenn High School. He made several stops yesterday in North Carolina.
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Published: May 5, 2008
KERNERSVILLE
Bill Clinton was once the most popular Democrat in the country.
Then he started attacking Barack Obama, angering many blacks and young, highly educated Democrats in larger cities who once worshipped the former president.
In the small, mostly white, working-class towns that dot North Carolina, though, the former president still gets greeted like a rock star when he stumps on behalf of his wife.
"Don't you forget, she is in this race because of people like you in places like this," Clinton said to thunderous applause last night at a packed rally at Glenn High School. "She's been counted out more times than a cat's got lives. And people in places like this kept bringing her back."
Over the past two months, Clinton has become his wife's chief ambassador to small-town America. It's an important role.
Some of Hillary Clinton's most ardent supporters live in towns such as Lenoir, Kernersville, Morganton, all of which Bill Clinton swung through on a marathon day of campaigning yesterday.
His wife's campaign hopes that her strength in those cities with both Democrats and rural independent voters will be enough to overcome Obama's overwhelming support among blacks and young voters.
Many of these towns have suffered greatly from the loss of manufacturing jobs to Central America, Mexico and China. Bill Clinton's folksy explanation of her economic plans go over big -- everything from enforcement of violations of trade agreements that hurt American workers, to a windfall-profit tax for flush oil companies and a pledge to provide health insurance to all.
"Under Bill Clinton, we had eight years of peace in prosperity. We were not stuck in a war. We could afford food and gas. And under George Bush, we've lost every gain we've made," said Jack Fox of Lenoir.
The fact that a Hillary Clinton presidency comes with Bill Clinton in tow is one big reason he decided to vote for her. "We get two for the price of one," he said.
At every stop yesterday, Clinton said he was heartened by what he called a diverse crowd, "united across race, gender, religion and age." But the audiences to which he spoke underscored the deep racial, age and education-level divide that exists between Hillary Clinton's and Obama's supporters.
Clinton was once so beloved among blacks that he earned the nickname "the first black president." At his stops yesterday, only a handful of blacks showed up to cheer him on.
In many small towns, his message also hit home with independent voters, who can vote in the Democratic primary this year.
Both campaigns are gunning for the support of the state's 1.2 million registered independent voters as the campaign enters its final two days.
"I think they're likely to be very important, as we've seen in other states," said Craig Schirmer, Obama's director in North Carolina. "It certainly is a group that we believe will be favorable to Obama because of his message of change."
In many states, Obama has had more success courting independents. But Clinton's campaign is confident that North Carolina will prove different.
"We were getting destroyed with independents in all those early primaries," Ace Smith, Clinton's director in North Carolina, told The New York Times last week, adding that the campaign expected to split those voters with Obama here this time.
Independent voters in North Carolina are overwhelmingly white -- seven times more whites than blacks -- according to state statistics. About half are under 40, and they are split roughly equally between women and men.
Todd Gillihan, an independent from Winston-Salem, plans to vote for Clinton. If she doesn't win the nomination, his support would not extend to Obama in the fall, he said.
"She'll make a fine president," he said, "but mostly I don't want Obama to win."
■ Sean Mussenden can be reached at smussenden@mediageneral.com or 202-662-7668.
■ Journal reporter James Romoser contributed to this story.
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