Politics admin on 10 Dec 2007 11:30 am
Hillary, Urkel Draw Dozens
(FiniteTimes.com) – The campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton is setting aside the serious campaign rhetoric this week with a series of lighter stops in South Carolina and New Hampshire that will feature veteran 1990’s television actor Jaleel White.
“Why am I for Hillary? Because she’d make the only President that I would want to kiss!” said White in a reprisal of his “Family Matters” character, Steve Urkel. He spoke to the mostly bemused morning crowd at Fisher Dill’s Diner in Durham, one of about 25 joint appearances the campaign has scheduled for the week.
While campaign staff are quick to deny it, many analysts see this as a calculated attempt to blunt Barak Obama’s recent use of Oprah Winfrey to shore up his support with women.
“Oh, I don’t think there’s any doubt that Jaleel White was brought in to counter the Oprah effect, particularly with African American voters,” said UNH political sciences professor David Strong. “Hillary thought she had the menstruation vote locked up, and here comes Oprah? Slaaaaaaaap, ouch. Urkel is an attempt to offset those losses by pulling in more of the black vote.
“I am surprised though that she didn’t go with someone who would resonate more forcefully with the African American community, say a Samuel Jackson,” Strong added. “One ‘vote for this bitch, motherfuckers!’ and she would have had my vote.”
It’s too early to tell whether the Hillary/Urkel appearances will have an effect, but early polling has been largely encouraging. A recent Pew flash poll has found that eight out of ten probably New Hampshire voters were successfully able to identify Jaleel White as an African American.
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