Obama Up 30 Points Among Low-Wage Voters

[Joanne98]

by Jonathan Singer, Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 07:57:36 AM EST

Remember how Barack Obama was supposed to be uniquely weak among "hardworking Americans"? Well apparently that's just not the case.

According to a new poll from The Washington Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University, Obama leads by a whopping 58 percent to 28 percent margin (.pdf) among voters under the age of 65 working at least 30 hours a week for $27,000 or less per year. Obama's performance within this demographic is almost exactly the same as Kerry's in 2004; although the breakdown of subgroups in exit polling from that fall doesn't exactly line up with this survey, Kerry appears to have brought in about 59 percent of the vote of those earning $30,000 or less per year that November -- not tremendously far off from Obama's showing.

How about John McCain's numbers? How do they stack up? McCain's 28 percent showing among this demographic is significantly less than the roughly 40 percent of the vote George W. Bush received from those earning less than $30,000 per year back in 2004. Unless Bush carried the votes of those earning $27,001 to $30,000 per year by an overwhelming margin, or unless those in this income demographic over the age of 65 were tremendously Bush-leaning (and Bush only carried the overall over-65 vote with 52 percent of the vote), it would certainly appear that McCain is seriously underperforming among the lowest wage workers in the country. McCain's showing is even poorer than that of the House Republicans in 2006, when GOP candidates pulled in about 34 percent of the vote of those earning less than $30,000 per year.

This graf from the write up of the poll would garner some attention as well:

http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/8/4/75736/89122

[bluestateguy]

1. "How CAN John McCain 'connect' with working-class voters?"

Well, that's what the cable news channels should be chattering about.

[paparush]

2. Now THOSE are the percentages we need to carry into November..

to put this "election" out of reach of the Neocon Election Stealing Machine (tm)

[TheWraith]

3. Once again, it's proved that the pundits don't know what the hell they're talking about.

Add it to the list.

[HughMoran]

6. The pundits are swayed by rednecks

...or are the pundits rednecks?

Sheesh.... :mad:

[Muttocracy]

4. All we need is for people to vote their economic self-interest! nt

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. Wow! Big numbers!

[New Dawn]

7. What is most disturbing are the 28% supporting McCain.

Class traitors.

[gepetto41]

8. George Bush does not care about poor people

Katrina demonstrated the low regard Bush has for people who are not his elite, that is, multi-millionaires with power. No wonder McCain is performing so poorly in this group.