Labels: journos, politics

Democrats who deeply excite young people and play most strongly to the party's anti-war left seem to have a bigger barks than bites. Young people and "latte liberals" have disproportionately high media profiles, and that seems to make for a misleading impression of momentum[....] Hillary's women may not make as much noise as Barack's college students, but they will not be moved by mere buzz.

Since the 1960s, Democratic nominating contests regularly have come down to a struggle between a candidate who draws support primarily from upscale, economically comfortable voters liberal on social and foreign policy issues, and a rival who relies mostly on downscale, financially strained voters drawn to populist economics and somewhat more conservative views on cultural and national security issues.

It's not much of an oversimplification to say that the blue-collar Democrats tend to see elections as an arena for defending their interests, and the upscale voters see them as an opportunity to affirm their values. Each group finds candidates who reflect those priorities.

Democratic professionals often describe this sorting as a competition between upscale "wine track" candidates and blue-collar "beer track" contenders. Another way to express the difference is to borrow from historian John Milton Cooper Jr.'s telling comparison of the pugnacious Theodore Roosevelt and the idealistic Woodrow Wilson. Cooper described the long rivalry between Republican Roosevelt and Democrat Wilson as a contest between a warrior and a priest. In modern times, the Democratic presidential race has usually pitted a warrior against a priest.

Labels: politics

Put in black and white, scored with a little acoustic riffing and soulful, expertly Pro-Tooled background singing, he becomes a vector for treacly indie-yuppie political fantasy. I'm surprised Zach Braff didn't make an appearance. The whole thing plays like a smug grup love-in. Love me, Park Slope!

Obama's people are so taken with their messiah that soon they'll be selling flowers at airports and arranging mass weddings. There's a "Yes We Can" video floating around YouTube in which a bunch of celebrities like Scarlett Johansson and the guy from the Black Eyed Peas are singing the words to an Obama speech in escalating states of righteousness and ecstasy. If that video doesn't creep out normal working-class voters, then nothing will.

Labels: politics