I think Blow is wrong about the "White House's new strategy" picking on whiners. That message was targeted to people active in politics who are whining because they haven't yet gotten everything that they've wanted. Charles Blow is one of those liberals who writes regularly about how disappointed he is.
Obama's strategy for targeting dems appears to be trying to enthuse and engage people through backyard chats and rallies because heaven knows we don't vote out of civic duty, we only vote when we feel moved to vote, when someone rouses us. It would be nice if all Obama had to do was to educate folks. He has to do so much more. He has to govern, educate and at the same time he has to go from city to city motivating people with fiery speeches on which he's usually judged (and perhaps inspires the actual act of voting) based on how fiery (partisan) he gets.
Therein lies the hurdle for the Democrats: How can they excite this part of the base that is not engaged and knowledgeable in an off-year election? How can they motivate these voters to help Democrats maintain their Congressional majorities when, according to a poll released this week by the Pew Research Center, 42 percent of blacks, 42 percent of Hispanics and 35 percent of voters ages 18 to 29 years old don’t even know that Democrats have a majority in the House? It’s sad. Pathetic, really. But it’s a political reality. (Only 71 percent of Democrats overall knew that Democrats had a majority in the House. By comparison, 82 percent of Republicans knew it.)
Instead of focusing like a laser on this problem, part of the White House’s new strategy appears to be to pick a fight with the left’s ivory tower intelligentsia.
Vice President Joe Biden said at a fund-raiser on Monday that the Democratic base should “stop whining.” The “professional left” may be whining, but underengaged Democrats are simply wandering. And, by the way, many Democrats don’t even know who the vice president is. In the Pew poll, 64 percent of Hispanics, 51 percent of young adults and 45 percent of blacks could not name Biden as the vice president. (Only 35 percent of Republicans got it wrong.) Read the whole thing at NYT
