http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/11/opinion/11greenberg.html
The New York Times
November 11, 2008
Op-Ed Contributor
Goodbye, Reagan Democrats
By STANLEY B. GREENBERG
....Bill Clinton wrote in his autobiography that my "extensive research
on the so-called Reagan Democrats and what it would take to bring them
home" was the reason he hired me as his pollster for his presidential
campaign.
For more than 20 years, the non-college-educated white voters in Macomb
County [in suburban Detroit] have been considered a "national political
barometer," as Ronald Brownstein of National Journal described them
during the Democratic convention in August. After Ronald Reagan won the
county by a 2-to-1 margin in 1984, Mr. Brownstein noted that I
conducted focus groups that "found that these working-class whites
interpreted Democratic calls for economic fairness as code for transfer
payments to African-Americans."
So what do we think when Barack Obama, an African-American Democrat,
wins Macomb County by eight points?
I conducted a survey of 750 Macomb County residents who voted Tuesday,
and their responses put their votes in context. Before the Democratic
convention, barely 40 percent of Macomb County voters were
"comfortable" with the idea of Mr. Obama as president, far below the
number who were comfortable with a nameless Democrat. But on Election
Day, nearly 60 percent said they were "comfortable" with Mr. Obama.
About the same number said Mr. Obama "shares your values" and "has what
it takes to be president."
Given Macomb's history, this story helps illustrate America's evolving
relationship with race.
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Michael