Trouble with white, blue-collar vote for Dems, Obama?

In all the musings about what to watch for in today's primary and special elections around the country, there was a paragraph in a story in today's Wall Street Journal ("Democrats Face Threat From Their Own Base") that caught my eye -- and could spell trouble for President Obama.

Democratic strategists said their party faces great peril if it is unable to find candidates this year who can shore up the connection with white, blue-collar voters who are trending toward the GOP. Mr. Obama won election in 2008 thanks largely to highly energized minority voters and liberal whites, but white voters like these in northeastern Pennsylvania were crucial to building a majority.

Reading that assessment took me back to the grueling 2008 presidential campaign and then-Sen. Barack Obama's difficulty connecting with blue-collar voters. It was so difficult that then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was able to continue her nomination battle, which everyone thought would be over in February, until June. Obviously, Obama prevailed. But the key to that Journal paragraph is understanding that white, blue-collar voters like those in Pennsylvania were the mortar between those blocs of liberal whites and excited people of color that got Obama elected.
Given the bipartisan anger rippling across the country, the rise of the Tea Party movement, the growing disillusionment with Washington to get anything done and concern about the size of government to accomplish those tasks, I'll be curious to see how all those voting blocs cast their ballots tonight. The Democrats are going to have a time of it no matter what this November. We know that. But if Democrats can't keep white, blue-collar voters from going Republican in 2010, imagine the trouble Obama might have in 2012.

By Jonathan Capehart  |  May 18, 2010; 1:39 PM ET