Letters to the Editor
kenkapkk
Published Letters: 131 Editor's Choice: 13
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Joan-example of what I mean-Kenkapkk
[Read the article: How much can John Edwards help Barack Obama?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Joan,
When we menton bias, here's an example. Recently you cited Kos to buttress your argument that Obama needs to work to bring in blue collar white voters. But why is he having a problem beside any racial component or the perceive "lack of communication"?
From today's Kos in discusssing a memo from a respected Repub on party's woes.
"Tom Davis is one of the few Republican office holders whose strategic analyses I respect as being largely free of ideology. He's a past chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, and one of the few Republicans who has voted against his party even when he was pressured to go along with the crowd. He's not a bipartisan nice guy... He's an adversary, not someone I like, but as a political strategist, he's someone to take seriously.
(from Davis' 21 page memo:)
"I point this out because Obama’s appeal is to the liberal cultural base of the Democratic Party, not to its liberal economic base. His connection to high income suburbs, the granola belt and college towns, is strong, but his connection to poorer whites, rural voters and other voters who may be susceptible to the Democrats’ message on the economy is not yet demonstrated. Conservative value voters are a long way from being sold on Obama, even while they feel pinched by global trade, a soft housing market and high gas prices. But Republicans have to hold these voters to have any chance in 2008.
The Bush campaign focused like a laser on these voters, whether it was mailing the subscription list to "Guns and Ammo" magazine, to advertising on Christian Radio, to voter registration drives at conservative churches... (sound familiar?-Ken)
2008 is different. Demographically, the nation is more diverse and more urbanized than in 2004. The Iraq war has proved to be the ultimate cultural issue, fueling and giving oxygen to the cultural left, as well as planting doubts in many swing voters minds about the direction of the country. The economy is softening and gas prices are skyrocketing, giving Obama an opening to court conservative value voters who are hurting economically.
***Fortunately, Hillary Clinton has driven a wedge between these competing constituencies, keeping them in play at the Presidential level. It begs the question of how these voters will vote in Congressional races.***
Kos follows:
"One can take this analysis too far—and I think Davis does—but he's on solid footing in pointing out that the zeal for Obama doesn't emanate from the more economically populist factions within the Democratic primary electorate. I think it's with populist independents that he needs to do the most immediate work solidifying voters who should be his. Based on the results in Mississippi, these voters don't appear to be overly hostile to Obama, because using Obama against Travis Childers didn't work.
***However, I think Davis is correct that Hillary Clinton has created a bit(understatement-Ken) of a problem by her divisive attempt to attack Obama as an _elitist_. It's damage that can be repaired, but it will be require some serious work by both Hillary and Bill Clinton to fix things up.
So is Obama's "blue collar white" problem entirely of his own making, or has the Clinton assault using right wing traditional talking points a meaningful factor in the exascerbation, or even semi creation of the perception? Again, because Clinton, in anger in 1995 over the failure of this constituancy to understand and support her husband and herself expressed her and hostility toward them in no uncertain terms.
If you are going to provide commentary and analysis on this issue, you can't evade and ignore this dynamic.
Now we see the Right wading in as they would, compliments of the LA Times
"On Saturday the LA Times' Dan Morain produced what charitably can be described as a hit piece on Barack Obama. The ostensible point was summed up in the article's title, "Obama's wealth has skyrocketed". Here is the lead:
"Barack Obama's wealth has more than doubled during his presidential campaign -- and has shot up tenfold since he entered the U.S. Senate three years ago, his financial disclosure filed Friday shows."
Kos-No doubt true - but hardly surprising given that he's sold many books since 2004 and no longer draws a modest Illinois Senate salary. Why not just say how much Obama is worth and leave aside the nearly meaningless rate of increase since 2004? Because the McCains' and Clintons' vastly higher wealth, both in 2004 and now, would make Obama's look pretty modest by comparison...
The point of the exercise is to help portray Obama as an "elitist" who's getting above his station. Here's how the article concludes
Claremont McKenna College political scientist Jack Pitney said that although there were no questions of conflict related to Obama's writings, his wealth could present him with a political problem "because of the issue of elitism," a charge he has sought to fend off during his campaign...(Pitney is a Republican)
Republicans and their mouthpieces in the traditional media will give us many more hatchet jobs on Obama's alleged "elitism". They've already been trained to frame the candidate as an elitist. No need to take my word for it. Check out the photo-montage used by Time in its one-sentence link to the Morain article. There's nothing subtle about that, is there?
Ken-That Clinton put her imprintaur on many of these talking points, and this one in particular, has been commented upon by many observers. For you to write extensively on this issue and not include her complicity as a dynamic is indicitive of what I termed "blind spot" and speaks to your bias, whether conscious or unconscious.
Therefore, it is often hard to take your commentary seriously when you cannot confront all the forces of a phenomenon or event dispassionately. If I missed your inclusion of this in a meaningful way, forgive me, but to my mind it deserved an entire column or essay here and it has not been highlighted.