This year the blue collar worker has achieved iconic status. The subtext is race and there is something about being white, working class, and male that means being quintessentially American. Perhaps it marks a subconscious return to the days when only white male property owners were allowed to vote. Oddly, we haven’t heard much about the black working class or the Hispanic working class. Don’t they vote too? What about working women? Moreover, a recent report in the Washington Post shows Obama leading McCain among white working voters. (The report also reveals a distinct lack of confidence for either candidate on the part of the poor.) So what’s the story? Eric Foner, professor of History at Columbia University, Bill Henning, Vice President of the Communications Workers of America Local 1180, Esther Kaplan Investigative Editor at The Nation Institute, and Bill Fletcher Executive Editor of The Black Commentator discuss the blue collar vote in November and why the Democratic Party is struggling to shore up it base. Less