Matthews: Is Obama "too University of Chicago or too South Side Chicago" for working-class voters?

Summary: On Hardball, Tucker Carlson asserted that "the working-class voters of West Virginia and Kentucky, and their counterparts in a bunch of states, including Ohio and Pennsylvania" are "the voters you need to watch and he [Sen. Barack Obama] needs to win." In response, Chris Matthews asked, "Is there anything he can do in terms of, is he too University of Chicago or too South Side Chicago for those people? Which way is he going too far?"

Having previously questioned whether Sen. Barack Obama can "connect with regular people" or if he appeals "only" to African-Americans and the well-educated, MSNBC's Chris Matthews asked if Obama is "too University of Chicago or too South Side Chicago" for working-class voters. Matthews made his comments after MSNBC senior campaign correspondent Tucker Carlson asserted that "the working-class voters of West Virginia and Kentucky, and their counterparts in a bunch of states, including Ohio and Pennsylvania" are "the voters you need to watch and he [Obama] needs to win."

During the June 10 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, Carlson said that "a number of [Sen.] Hillary [Clinton] supporters" will "go to Obama as a group. Because in the end, they have nothing in common with John McCain. Those aren't the voters the Obama people have to be worried about. It's the working-class voters of West Virginia and Kentucky, and their counterparts in a bunch of states, including Ohio and Pennsylvania, who didn't vote for Obama for other reasons. That's the problem. Because they're not ideologues, and they're not going to vote for the Democrat axiomatically. And, in fact, a lot of them said they're not voting for Obama, period. So those are the voters you need to watch and he needs to win." Matthews then asked, "Is there anything he can do in terms of, is he too University of Chicago or too South Side Chicago for those people? Which way is he going too far?"

Discussing Obama on the April 1 edition of Hardball, Matthews asked Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO): "Let me ask you about how he -- how's he connect with regular people? Does he? Or does he only appeal to people who come from the African-American community and from the people who have college or advanced degrees?"

From the June 10 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews:

MATTHEWS: Well, Ellen Malcolm is out there already.

MICHAEL CROWLEY (senior editor of The New Republic): She's coming out --

MATTHEWS: Good for her -- well, good to see her engaged again.

CROWLEY: It's not an Obama campaign event, Center for American Progress. But the issue is John McCain's record on women. They're not going to be saying positive things.

MATTHEWS: That's faster than I thought. You know? Tucker? That's a --

CARLSON: Well, that's -- I mean, that's not surprising.

MATTHEWS: -- fast retrieval of the opposition forces there.

CARLSON: Well, it is, but Ellen Malcolm is an ideologue who's focused on the issue of abortion. And there are a number of Hillary supporters like that: well-educated, urban, Hillary's feminists. And they will, I think, go to Obama as a group. Because in the end, they have nothing in common with John McCain.

Those aren't the voters the Obama people have to be worried about. It's the working-class voters of West Virginia and Kentucky, and their counterparts in a bunch of states, including Ohio and Pennsylvania, who didn't vote for Obama for other reasons. That's the problem. Because they're not ideologues, and they're not going to vote for the Democrat axiomatically. And, in fact, a lot of them said they're not voting for Obama, period. So those are the voters you need to watch and he needs to win.

MATTHEWS: Is there anything he can do in terms of, is he too University of Chicago or too South Side Chicago for those people? Which way is he going too far?

—R.C.