How Obama Won Blue Collars in Wisconsin

Given Barack Obama’s much-ballyhooed problems with white, working-class voters, it's instructive to remember that he clobbered Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin by 17 points in February, notes Mike Madden in Salon. If he can reconnect with those voters in Indiana—another state close to his Illinois home—he could wrap up the nomination. That is, of course, much easier said than done.

How did he win in Wisconsin? He was particularly on message and newly flush with cash, while a then-broke Clinton never recovered from a late start campaigning there. He also benefited from the state’s place of pride in the progressive movement: working-class voters there are especially open to messages of reform. (More Barack Obama stories.)