If you want a black-and-white explanation of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s dilemma as a politician, look no further than her most recent Senate campaign ad, released Tuesday afternoon. Through half of the 30-second spot, Clinton is surrounded by her most loyal supporters, African-American women, with talk about the minimum wage and standing up to President Bush.
The other half is pitched to white, male, conservative Catholics, her weakest demographic, a group that dominates key parts of Queens, Staten Island and Long Island (not to mention O-H-I-O). Here the ad highlights Clinton’s endorsement by Uniformed Firefighters Association chief Steve Cassidy (who backed Bush in ’04 during the GOP convention) and features Clinton telling firefighters Washington wasn’t "telling us the truth" when it declared the air at Ground Zero to be okay.
The hope, of course, is that she can win over the second group without alienating the first.
Glenn Thrush