Adwatch: Clinton portrays herself as middle-class champion

By The Associated Press
3:15 PM EDT, May 9, 2008

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TITLE: "Hillary for President"

LENGTH: 30 seconds

AIRING: West Virginia

SCRIPT: Announcer: "She's fighting for America's middle class."

Hillary Rodham Clinton: "It's time to level the playing field against the special interests."

Announcer: "She'll end $55 billion dollars in giveaways to corporate special interests and invest it in middle-class tax cuts and creating new jobs. She'll get tough on unfair trade deals and end tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas."

Hillary Clinton: "Standing up for people who weren't getting a fair shake, that's been the purpose of my life. And it will be the purpose of my presidency. I'm Hillary Clinton and I approved this message."

KEY IMAGES: Quick images of Clinton with what appear to be blue-collar workers are interspersed with clips from a campaign speech -- Clinton shaking hands with a man at a factory who then shows her a machine, speaking to an audience of casually dressed workers, speaking with three men in what appears to be a factory, cooing at a baby in a young woman's arms, speaking with two women workers standing behind cardboard boxes, receiving a hug from a woman in a red shirt with a company or union logo, standing in front of a man holding a toddler in his arms as she addresses an audience.

THE SPIN: Clinton is portraying herself as a champion of working-class Americans who are troubled by the downturn in the economy, the growing gap between rich and poor and the movement of manufacturing jobs overseas.

ANALYSIS: Clinton is playing to her strength in West Virginia -- blue-collar workers -- ahead of the state's Democratic presidential primary on Tuesday. Exit polls show Clinton substantially outperforms Barack Obama in competitive primaries this year among voters who do not have college degrees. She promises to get tough on "unfair trade deals" but her husband pushed the North American Free Trade Agreement through Congress. Senator Clinton says the agreement was a mistake and, if elected, she'd reopen it to seek stronger labor and environmental protections.

____

Analysis by Joan Lowy

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Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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