The new electoral dynamic
Frank Rich thinks this election is not like any in at least the past 20 years, and I hope he’s right. He doesn’t think finding a new Willie Horton is going to deep-six Obama, or charging him with elitism. And he thinks that the white working poor and middle class will come back to the Democrats.
One of the reasons he thinks Obama is going to prevail is all the new Democrats showing up at the polls already, in caucuses and primaries. Judging from my own limited personal experience, he may be right. Last year whenever I had a few free hours on a weekend, I helped register voters. Three out of every 10 voters we registered were people switching party affiliation from Republican to Democrat. We’ll see if that portends anything more wide scale.
May 15th, 2008 at 3:27 am
You’d think if the Democratic Party picked up a wet piece of cardboard off the street and nominated it for President, they’d still win easily, BUT don’t forget the fact that there are a lot — an awful (in every sense) lot — of folks who simply won’t vote for a black man, a woman, or Hillary. The reason we have a chance of overcoming this year is mainly because of the incredibly poor record “w” has made for himself and his party.
But it still ain’t gonna be easy.