June 6 (Bloomberg) -- Blue-collar voters who rejected Barack Obama in the primaries will vote for him in the general election because they are deeply unhappy with President George W. Bush's policies and John McCain's message doesn't appeal to them, former House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt said.

``Barack Obama has a great message for middle-class working voters and I think those voters are going to come to his side,'' Gephardt said in an interview on Bloomberg Television's ``Political Capital With Al Hunt,'' to be broadcast today.

``A lot of them are very angry at George Bush and the Republican Party,'' he said. ``Republicans are in trouble with a lot of voters, even some Republican voters, because of the state of the economy, what's happened in Iraq, gasoline prices. You name it, they've got problems.''

McCain is failing to connect with the same voters, said Gephardt, who ran twice for president and had strong support from working-class Democrats. ``A lot of them are not going to be attracted to John McCain's economic message, which I haven't figured out yet,'' Gephardt said.

Obama, 46, a senator from Illinois, wrapped up the Democratic nomination this week. He secured the nomination even though rival Hillary Clinton, 60, won by huge margins the white, working-class vote -- non-college-educated people earning less than $50,000 a year -- in states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky.

`Broad Range'

An Obama-Clinton presidential slate ``would appeal to a broad range of the American people, and I think it would make a great ticket,'' said Gephardt, who supported Clinton, a New York senator, in the primaries. Even so, he stopped short of calling on Obama to pick Clinton as his running mate.

``That is his decision,'' said Gephardt, 67. ``I'm sure there are other candidates that he will want to look at, and I don't feel comfortable trying to tell anybody who has won the nomination what they need to do.''

Gephardt urged Obama to accept the invitation by McCain, an Arizona senator, to conduct a series of joint town-hall meetings.

``He will do very well in that setting,'' said Gephardt. ``It would be refreshing for the American people to see the candidates just interacting with people without the intermediaries of the journalistic community.''

Obama told reporters yesterday that his staff is discussing the idea with McCain's campaign. ``We're going to try to work something out,'' the Democrat said.

Connect With Voters

Asked how Obama can connect with independents and working- class Democrats, Gephardt said, ``I think he is going to solve that problem.''

``They are going to learn a lot -- and it will be good -- about Barack Obama. They are going to learn his life story,'' Gephardt said. Obama needs to ``get out in front of people and tell people what you want to do and why you want to do it and how you're going to do it,'' he said.

Gephardt, who represented a St. Louis district in Congress for almost three decades, predicted that Obama would carry Missouri, which has gone for the Republican in the past two general elections.

With the exception of 1956, Missouri has voted for the winning presidential candidate in every election over the last century.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christopher Stern in Washington at Cstern3@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 6, 2008 13:27 EDT