Oregon primary coverage. Pathetic.
Can someone tell me where I can find a modicum, a vestige of intelligent political coverage on cable?
With the media’s newfound fascination with the “white working class” vote, it appeared to me that cable punditry largely dismissed Obama’s win last night in Oregon: i.e., he still has a “white working class” problem! They suddenly proclaimed that Oregon is the heart of tofu-land and so wildly liberal and freaky, that even if whites overwhelmingly supported Obama there, it isn’t representative of anything. And so the narrative goes: well, of course he won there; everyone knows Oregon is profoundly lefty. And between sipping their lattes, Oregonians are either blabbing about socialist utopia, or about the plight of the spotted owl.
Lazy, lazy journalism. Oregon is not the land of the dreaded tofu eaters. I’ve lived there, and been all over that state. Portland is certainly affluent and liberal (and awesome!), and the state at large is marginally Democratic-leaning. But, democrats have to work hard – HARD – to win that state. Republicans always have a shot there. It’s always competitive. I think Al Gore won it by a few thousand votes over Bush. Kerry didn’t fare much better. It is not, in fact, a liberal, tofu eating state. It is solidly working class, and average. An economically disadvantaged state. Median income I believe is below the national average. And Loggers, ranchers, farmers, fisherman, and the working poor are the forte of that State. Unemployment rates there, as I recall, mirror what one might find in southern border states. And yet, I think Obama crushed in nearly all counties there, rural and urban.
No doubt, what happened with respect to media coverage is that a bunch of ivy league educated journalists flew into Portland for the primary coverage, hung out at several of Portland’s (excellent and hip!) coffee houses, and reported back to Chris Mathews that – well, of course, these tofu eaters were going to break huge for Obama. The barista at the coffee house even had a nose ring!
Wow, get out of Portland dude! I recently heard that Oregon is so average, so demographically and socio-economically normal, that corporate America uses Oregon as a test market for products.
What Obama has, I think, is an Appalachia problem. Not a working, white class problem. A geographic problem, so to speak. Appalachia, for anyone who’s been there, is so culturally conservative, so dare I say backwards (sorry USC), that I can totally believe many of them are not ready for a guy with a weird name, a guy who doesn’t fit the mold they are used to. A candidate who is allegedly some fancy-pants Ivy League elitist, a guy who amazingly has never dined on fried squirrel. Never mind that John McCain has nine houses, a private fishing lake, and married into a beer fortune. That narrative will never be explored in the media at large.
IMO, Obama’s likely to do fine with “white” working class voters in purple states, like Wisconsin, Iowa, Oregon, etc. At least as well as Gore or Kerry, and probably better. Rightwing insistence that we must swoon over Reverend Wright, not withstanding. However, he’s facing a major cultural problem in West Virginia, western Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and other states that are geographically linked to Appalachia. F*ck it. I don’t think he needs west Virginia or kentucky. But, what do I know. I’m not the electoral math whiz.
Can someone tell me where I can find a modicum, a vestige of intelligent political coverage on cable?
With the media’s newfound fascination with the “white working class” vote, it appeared to me that cable punditry largely dismissed Obama’s win last night in Oregon: i.e., he still has a “white working class” problem! They suddenly proclaimed that Oregon is the heart of tofu-land and so wildly liberal and freaky, that even if whites overwhelmingly supported Obama there, it isn’t representative of anything. And so the narrative goes: well, of course he won there; everyone knows Oregon is profoundly lefty. And between sipping their lattes, Oregonians are either blabbing about socialist utopia, or about the plight of the spotted owl.
Lazy, lazy journalism. Oregon is not the land of the dreaded tofu eaters. I’ve lived there, and been all over that state. Portland is certainly affluent and liberal (and awesome!), and the state at large is marginally Democratic-leaning. But, democrats have to work hard – HARD – to win that state. Republicans always have a shot there. It’s always competitive. I think Al Gore won it by a few thousand votes over Bush. Kerry didn’t fare much better. It is not, in fact, a liberal, tofu eating state. It is solidly working class, and average. An economically disadvantaged state. Median income I believe is below the national average. And Loggers, ranchers, farmers, fisherman, and the working poor are the forte of that State. Unemployment rates there, as I recall, mirror what one might find in southern border states. And yet, I think Obama crushed in nearly all counties there, rural and urban.
No doubt, what happened with respect to media coverage is that a bunch of ivy league educated journalists flew into Portland for the primary coverage, hung out at several of Portland’s (excellent and hip!) coffee houses, and reported back to Chris Mathews that – well, of course, these tofu eaters were going to break huge for Obama. The barista at the coffee house even had a nose ring!
Wow, get out of Portland dude! I recently heard that Oregon is so average, so demographically and socio-economically normal, that corporate America uses Oregon as a test market for products.
What Obama has, I think, is an Appalachia problem. Not a working, white class problem. A geographic problem, so to speak. Appalachia, for anyone who’s been there, is so culturally conservative, so dare I say backwards (sorry USC), that I can totally believe many of them are not ready for a guy with a weird name, a guy who doesn’t fit the mold they are used to. A candidate who is allegedly some fancy-pants Ivy League elitist, a guy who amazingly has never dined on fried squirrel. Never mind that John McCain has nine houses, a private fishing lake, and married into a beer fortune. That narrative will never be explored in the media at large.
IMO, Obama’s likely to do fine with “white” working class voters in purple states, like Wisconsin, Iowa, Oregon, etc. At least as well as Gore or Kerry, and probably better. Rightwing insistence that we must swoon over Reverend Wright, not withstanding. However, he’s facing a major cultural problem in West Virginia, western Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and other states that are geographically linked to Appalachia. F*ck it. I don’t think he needs west Virginia or kentucky. But, what do I know. I’m not the electoral math whiz.
