By: Cary Briel, Skaneateles Design

Author Benjamin Barber recounts in his book, “The Truth of Power: Intellectual Affairs in the Clinton White House” how Hillary Clinton answered another speaker who had raised the difficulties of reaching “Reagan Democrats” after Democratic losses in the 1994 Congressional elections. The debate emerged at a retreat at Camp David in 1995. Should the administration make overtures to working class white southerners who had all but forsaken the Democratic Party? The then-first lady took a less than inclusive approach. Barber recounts Hillary Clinton’s response:

“Screw ‘em,” she told her husband. “You don’t owe them a thing, Bill. They’re doing nothing for you; you don’t have to do anything for them.”

It stands in stark contrast to the attitude the New York Democrat has recently taken on the campaign trail, in which she has presented herself as the one candidate who understands the working-class needs:

“I don’t think Obama really gets it that people are looking for a president who stands up for you and not looks down on you,” she said this week.