White Guys Are Back
It was probably inevitable. The historic contest between a woman and an African-American for the presidential nomination is now all about white men.
Not that the white male voters asked for this. They’ve been uncommitted, supporting Hillary in one contest and Barack in the next. But all that hemming and hawing has turned them into the deciding factor in the big upcoming primary in Pennsylvania.
Reporters are spread all over the state, searching for white men to interview. American Legion halls under siege! Both campaigns engage in extensive research, which reveals that white men are very concerned about the economy. Duh.
Courting them is extremely tricky. It’s not like you can promise that under your presidency, more white men would be appointed to the Supreme Court.
The candidates’ desperation to make contact is showing. Barack Obama goes bowling in Altoona — with disastrous consequences. Hillary Clinton attempts to compare herself to Rocky Balboa, prompting many people to note that Rocky lost to a black guy. Obama, rather cruelly, points out that Rocky is a fictional character. Clinton, in turn, reveals that she owns her own bowling ball.
It’s got to be irking women and blacks. This was supposed to be all about us! But in modern politics, the people who choose up sides are doomed to be taken for granted while the whole world goes running after the folks on the fence. That is why this fall the presidential campaign will be taking place in 13 states, and the would-be presidents will spend more time worrying about Iowa than New York and California combined.
By October, some of you will have dedicated so many hours to discussing this election that close friends will cross the street to avoid having another conversation. Yet every once in a while you will note that the candidate you gave your heart to centuries ago is spending all his/her time in desperate pursuit of your next-door neighbor who is undecided, possibly because he can’t remember which one is the Republican and which one is the Democrat.
The candidates have already resigned themselves to wooing people with political attention deficit disorder. They know that if they embark on a 12-week tour of the nation to publicize their signature issue of dropout prevention, on the day it’s over they will turn on the TV and see an undecided voter in sweat pants saying: “I’m waiting to hear what they say about dropouts.” Then they’ll order up another passel of ads and go out to woo again.
But we digress. The question at hand is: What do white men want?
Maybe not change — sorry, Barack. Pennsylvania is a state where change has not been a friend to your average white male, particularly the aging working-class ones who are the candidates’ prime target. Change left the state full of empty factories that towns keep desperately trying to make into condos or art museums.
Although there is nobody happier than a white guy when his daughter turns out to be a star in the Little League, change has taken away most of white men’s favorite preserves, including sports. They long ago came to grips with the fact that they weren’t going to be seeing many reflections of themselves on the basketball court anymore. (They have not, in my observation, become nearly as resigned to female sports announcers.) And it’s hard to fashion an entire identity out of fantasy football and hockey.
I once tried to make a list of specifically guy things that no woman was ever going to want to trespass upon. All I came up with were “The Three Stooges” and lawn care. This is not adequate material around which to construct a presidential campaign.
As I said, the white guys did not ask for the honor of being the target demographic. They know it’s a minefield. As Paul Vitello reported Friday in The Times, they couch every negative comment about Barack with a preface pointing out that this isn’t about race. And I cannot tell you how many Obama men I have run into who begin every discussion by noting that Hillary is an excellent senator.
I still wonder if the white males have been maintaining their even-handedness through some kind of secret pact. Maybe the guys in Wisconsin agreed to vote for Obama if their brothers in Ohio would go for Clinton, and so on. They probably transmitted the signals with those drums they bought during the manhood epidemic in the ’90s. But now all eyes are on Pennsylvania, and they can’t keep their heads down any longer.
Maybe Hillary’s blunder about being under sniper fire in Bosnia was just an attempt to make contact with a group that feels somewhat under siege.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/05/opinion/05collins.html?th&emc=th
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