Joe Klein On American Myth

Joe Klein has articulated exactly why the Democrats don't consistently connect with American voters, but its not for the reason he believes.

The left has a difficult time winning elections because they continually assess their election defeats as more fluky than legitimate.  In 2000, they argued that Bush stole the election.  In 2004, John Kerry was "swift boated."  The latest example of this kind of analysis is Joe Klein.   This time, it's going to be that the GOP pulled the wool over the eyes of the electorate by turning the election into a "nostalgia referendum."

Klein published a piece in Time Magazine on the appeal that Governor Palin has on American voters.   In keeping with his worldview as a man of the left, Klein concludes that, by nominating Governor Palin, the Republicans might have put themselves in a position to fool American voters once again.  His basic premise is that, since Reagan, the GOP has been successful with the electorate because it has aggressively tapped into the power of myth and nostalgia about an America that never really existed.  Here is the myth as defined by Klein:

She embodies the most basic American myth — Jefferson's yeoman farmer, the fantasia of rural righteousness — updated in a crucial way: now Mom works too. Palin's story stands with one foot squarely in the nostalgia for small-town America and the other in the new middle-class reality. She brings home the bacon, raises the kids — with a significant assist from Mr. Mom — hunts moose and looks great in the process. I can't imagine a more powerful, or current, American Dream.

This is the typical kind of worldview we get from the left.  Those of us who live in rural, or even suburban settings are a bunch of unsophisticated rubes who are easily duped by the craven Republican spin machine.  Egads -- now we're falling for it again!

What about poor Barack Obama?  According to Klein, Senator Obama is himself a victim of the "America that was" myth that is exploited so well by the GOP:

The Republican Party's subliminal message seems stronger than ever this year because of the nature of the Democratic nominee for President. Barack Obama could not exist in the small-town America that Reagan fantasized. He's the product of what used to be called miscegenation, a scenario that may still be more terrifying than a teen daughter's pregnancy in many American households. Furthermore, he has thrived in the culture and economy that displaced Main Street America — an economy where people no longer work in factories or make things with their hands, but where lawyers and traders prosper unduly. (Of course, this is the economy the Republican Party has promoted — but facts are powerless in the face of a potent mythology.) Obama is the precise opposite of Mountain Man Todd Palin: an entirely urban creature. He lives within the hilarious conundrum of being both too "cosmopolitan" and intellectual for Republican tastes — at least as Rudy Giuliani described it — while also being the sort of fellow suspected of getting ahead by affirmative action.

Conservative voters can only hope that the Democratic establishment continues to view their defeats as resulting from nothing more than opportunistic and shallow manipulations of "average" Americans with traditionalist worldviews.  As long as the Democrats continue to believe their own myths, they won't understand that its their own policies and arrogance that keep the voters from embracing them.

Barack Obama: Gaffe Machine

It was probably just an extremely poor choice of words, but there's no doubt that Barack Obama's "lipstick on a pig" statement is going to leave a mark...and a big one at that.  Very, very stupid utterance by the Senator from Illinois.

On the one hand, Senator Obama's carelessness will alienate scores of female voters who will interpret his statement as a cheap smear of Senator Palin.  On the other hand, Senator Obama will need to spend time defending himself, something a candidate running for the presidency doesn't want to do.  Especially when he defends himself by saying the following in reference to Governor Palin:

"Look, she's new, she hasn't been on the scene, she's got five kids. And my hat goes off to anybody whose looking after five. I've got two and they tire Michelle and me out," he said.

So now, by inference, he's joining in with those suggesting that her family obligations are too taxing for the vice presidency? Doh!

These are just the latest faux pas in a campaign that appears to be melting down right before our eyes.

The train wreck continues as the Obama campaign is now questioning Senator McCain's honor.  Wow!

Update on Tuesday, September 9, 2008 at 08:08PM by Joe

Joe Biden didn't have a very good day either with his suggestion that the McCain-Palin ticket doesn't really care about developmentally disabled children even though Governor Palin's son has Down's Syndrome:

Speaking to voters in Columbia, Mo., Biden said: “I hear all this talk about how the Republicans are going to work in dealing with parents who have both the joy, because there’s joy to it as well, the joy and the difficulty of raising a child who has a developmental disability, who were born with a birth defect. Well guess what folks? If you care about it, why don’t you support stem cell research?”

Biden aides deny that the Delaware senator was talking about Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, who has an infant son with Down syndrome, but McCain aides say Biden’s latest remark scrapes bottom.

Ooofff.

Want Some Cheese With That Whine?

The Obama campaign is really on the defensive these days.  In response to huge polling shifts, particularly a Washington Post poll showing a 20-point swing toward McCain among white women, the Obama campaign has started to whine:

Asked about the findings during a briefing on Monday before the poll was published, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe told a Washington Post reporter, "Well, your poll is wrong."

The polls are wrong, McCain is lying, Republicans are going to try and tell you that I'm a Muslim, Governor Palin would be a backward step for women if elected vice president, lawyer deployments, etc. etc. etc.

I do believe panic is setting in.

Andrew Sullivan: Cold, Calculating and Crass

Andrew Sullivan has become a wacked-out, comical character increasingly known for his buffoonish utterances.  His latest misadventure has him eagerly pushing the malicious and mean-spirited rumor that Sarah Palin's daughter, Bristol, was the real mother of Governor Palin's newborn son Trig.  Even after the McCain campaign was compelled to release very private and personal information about Bristol Palin's current pregnancy, an account that completely invalidates the aforementioned and ill-conceived rumor that entailed Governor Palin faking a pregnancy to cover for her daughter, Andrew Sullivan can't admit that the rumor he helped propagate was false.  In a stunning display of chutzpah, Sullivan is actually demanding medical proof that Trig belongs to Bristol.

In a subsequent post, Sullivan stuck with the "we demand proof" theme and wrote the following:

Now they've cleared the air on this - and good for them - what harm would it do to release the medical records showing that Sarah Palin delivered Trig on April 18 in Wasilla? This is not hard: there must be an obstetrician, medical records, and data that can easily refute this rumor. It is not out of the ordinary either: candidates routinely issue medical records. So let's have them. And then we can move on.

Just who is "we," Andrew?  Are you referring to the flesh-eating, GOP-hating jackals who cover politics on the political Left?  Way to sport that humanity, Andrew.

Reuters has a story on the announcement of the pregnancy.  My two cents?  This is a private matter for the Palin family.  Many families deal with difficult situations such as this.  The decision by the Palin daughter to carry the baby to term and raise the child within the context of a marriage is both admirable and honorable.  It's the best-case scenario and a testament to the ideal by which premarital pregnancies should be handled.

GOP Benefits With Degree in Palintology

Sarah Palin was an inspired choice and signifies that the McCain campaign is going to steal away the mantle of "change and reform" from Obama.  The MSM is a little behind the curve on this, and still wondering why McCain would make a choice that potentially undermines his experience argument.  They'll catch on soon enough....

Governor Palin brings several things to the GOP ticket.  First and foremost, she brings a fresh face untainted by the Washington beltway establishment.  Secondly, she is a rock-ribbed conservative.  Thirdly, she has the credentials of a reformer who took on the sacred cows and corruption of the male-dominated GOP establishment in Alaska.  Finally, she will almost certainly appeal to a large enough segment of the female Clinton voters who believe that Hillary was snubbed by Obama.  Palin won't bring over the hard-core liberal women, but she will cause the working class women who live in places like Ohio and Pennsylvania to take a serious look at the GOP ticket.