Obama, Respect thy Frenemy
Politicians may not agree with or understand many of their voters’ tastes or opinions. Obama’s gaffe about religion & guns is a case in point. Palin’s pro-life stance angers many self-proclaimed feminists. Too often, politicians and average political devotees hiss and boo blindly, with little or no regard for the object of their derision. To hear Sarah Palin described as “trailer-trash” only reflects the naysayer’s inability to recognize that a large contingent of voters (women, faith-foward, hunter, small-town & suburban, blue-collar) might identify with her accomplishments. Moreover, the politically astute consistenly fail to connect with these large voting blocs. However much democrats (secretly?) despise “trailer-trash” voters, to win this election, Obama will need these some of these blocs behind him.
Polls may indicate where the wind blows, but years of analyzing polls apparently can’t teach democrats how to best their frenemies.
A great article from Financial Times describes the democrats’ problem with learning to respect thy voter quite well. See the article here.
