EVANSVILLE, IND. — Forget the eloquent speeches, the elegant suits and the Ivy League pedigree; Barack Obama is not so different from you, just a regular guy. With an eye to white working-class voters, Obama has recalibrated his image to bat away impressions that he is out of touch, an elitist.
Obama's suit coat is rarely in evidence these days. On a chilly Monday morning in Evansville, he arrived at a construction site in a white shirt and dress pants, though that led to teasing by workers wearing heavy tool belts over how skinny he looked.
In speeches, he puts emphasis on different chapters of his biography: his humble Hawaiian roots and teenage mother.
And he appears more often in front of small groups rather than giant rallies that isolate him from the crowd.
Behind the makeover is a recognition that in a fierce battle for a distinct slice of the Democratic electorate, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York is winning big. One national poll taken before the Pennsylvania presidential primary last month showed Clinton beating Obama by nearly 40 percentage points among white working-class voters. Clinton argues that her consistent success with these voters makes her more electable in the fall.
Obama's actions haven't always helped the cause. He was recorded telling campaign donors in San Francisco that small-town voters are "bitter" about their economic circumstances and "cling" to guns and religion.
His longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., further complicated matters with his contention after the Sept. 11 attacks that "America's chickens are coming home to roost" and with his theories about U.S. government complicity in the AIDS epidemic.
Now the campaign seems intent on portraying Obama as rather unexceptional. Overlook that he's a Harvard Law School graduate, a U.S. senator from Illinois and the author of two books, and you'll find a husband and father of two.
"We're always refining and perfecting the message," said David Axelrod, the campaign's lead strategist.
The Indiana primary today will test whether the new working-class incarnation pays off, but some supporters in the state prefer the old version.
"You want your president to be elite," said Caleb Warner, 29, who came out to see Obama on Saturday in Noblesville, Ind., drawing on an Indianapolis Colts analogy: "I want Peyton Manning as my quarterback. He's an elite quarterback. I want the best guy for the job."
