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Bredesen On Obama’s Cultural Chasm

By Kleinheider Posted on August 1, 2008 at 2:40 pm

Governor Phil Bredesen, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal today reiterated his firm contention that Tennessee is more or less out of play in the Presidential race, discussed the difficulties Obama faces in bridging the “cultural gap” and advises the candidate to find a way to capture the “Wal-Mart Women” who voted for Hilary Clinton:

“I really think he’s got to find a way to reach out,” he said, suggesting Obama could benefit from Bredesen’s “Wal-Mart Check Out Test,” which he employed in his efforts to reform TennCare, the state’s health care system. If you can talk about your ideas in a “conversation that makes sense” to the worker at the check out counter at Wal-Mart, Bredesen says, then voters will respond to your ideas. “If you’ve got that, you’ve got a plan,” he said.

The governor identified what he called a “real chasm” in the culture and values debate between the people of “Livingston, Tenn., and the south side of Chicago.” He said Obama’s recent comment that Republicans would try to scare voters by noting that he “doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills” would not help him close that cultural gap. The remark, he added, was “a mistake” although he didn’t fault him because “no one under that kind of scrutiny can say the right thing 24/7.”

Another suggestion from Bredesen: no more trips to Germany. “That’s not going to move any of those Wal-Mart women,” he said

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Comments

9 Responses to “Bredesen On Obama’s Cultural Chasm”

  1. x2klb writes
    August 1st, 2008 2:48 pm

    Oh Phil, thanks for making Gray’s job a little bit harder.

  2. kt writes
    August 1st, 2008 2:56 pm

    Phil will be surprised who the Wal-Mart women are in Tennessee and he will find out when he looks to them to help him in his next political campaign.

  3. LeftWingCracker writes
    August 1st, 2008 3:20 pm

    I keep saying no Democrat has lived at Curtisswood Lane since Ned Ray left office. Don’t help, Phil…

  4. Aunt B. writes
    August 1st, 2008 3:24 pm

    No, come on you guys. His TennCare reform was easy enough to explain in the checkout line–”Some of you are going to have to die so that I can continue to be governor.” Who can’t understand that?

  5. LeftWingCracker writes
    August 1st, 2008 4:07 pm

    Aunt B, +10

  6. Terry writes
    August 1st, 2008 7:24 pm

    Now that was good, Aunt B. Props.

  7. Wal-Mart Mom writes
    August 2nd, 2008 9:57 am

    Way to give up, Gov. Maybe you could spend a little more time in the Wal-Mart and you’d discover that we’re not all toothless rednecks who don’t understand what Obama is offering.

    We Wal-Mart Moms want what anybody wants: a president who’s smart and listens. That would be a change we could all benefit from.

  8. Bredesen On Obama In The New York Times : Post Politics: Political News and Views in Tennessee writes
    August 17th, 2008 3:02 pm

    [...] Bredesen on Obama in the Wall Street Journal Bredesen on Obama in [...]

  9. Bredesen To Campaign For Obama : Post Politics: Political News and Views in Tennessee writes
    August 19th, 2008 7:17 pm

    [...] BREDESEN’S PREVIOUS TALKING OF THE MESS ABOUT OBAMA: In the Sentinel In the Times In McClatchy In WSJ [...]

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