Why did Wash. Post claim that Clinton said people “in college towns” “don't need a president”?

Written by Brian Frederick

Published

A Washington Post article reported that in the New Hampshire primary, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton “fared best among working-class and middle-class voters, while [Sen. Barack] Obama did better with higher-income voters and in college towns -- a demographic that Clinton at one point mocked as people who 'don't need a president.' ” Searches of Google and the Nexis database found a newspaper article that quoted Clinton as saying, “Rich people don't need a president. They have been doing fine, and have been having a run of luck with George Bush.” But Media Matters could find no reports that quoted Clinton saying people “in college towns” don't need a president.

In a January 13 article on the upcoming Nevada caucuses, Washington Post staff writers Paul Kane and Alec MacGillis wrote, “In New Hampshire, [Sen. Hillary Rodham] Clinton [D-NY] fared best among working-class and middle-class voters, while [Sen. Barack] Obama [D-IL] did better with higher-income voters and in college towns -- a demographic that Clinton at one point mocked as people who 'don't need a president.' ” Kane and MacGillis did not report the origin of the Clinton quote. A Media Matters for America review of Google and the Nexis database found an article from the Muscatine (Iowa) Journal that reported that Clinton said at a December 31 appearance: “Rich people don't need a president. They have been doing fine, and have been having a run of luck with George Bush.” The Muscatine Journal article also reported that Clinton said: “Children need a president who cares about them and their futures.” But Media Matters could find no reports that quoted Clinton saying people “in college towns” don't need a president.

Nexis and Google searches also found that media outlets -- including The Washington Post's blog The Trail -- reported that Clinton said on December 20: “It's tempting anytime things seem quieter for a minute on the international front to think that we don't need a president who is up to speed on foreign affairs and military matters. Well, that's the kind of logic that got us George Bush in the first place” (emphasis added).

From the January 13 article in The Washington Post:

The unusual venue has set the scene for a different confrontation between Obama and Clinton, the two front-runners, than occurred in Iowa or New Hampshire.

In New Hampshire, Clinton fared best among working-class and middle-class voters, while Obama did better with higher-income voters and in college towns -- a demographic that Clinton at one point mocked as people who “don't need a president.”

But in Las Vegas, Clinton, a senator from New York, is supported by many hotel and casino executives, while Obama has the backing of two key unions -- the Nevada chapter of the Service Employees International Union and the culinary workers, which announced its endorsement Wednesday after fierce lobbying from all three Democrats.