Well. folks, I guess we're getting a wake-up call. I refer you to the latest from Daily Politics on the web---"The Fox Juggernaut: Why It's Number One", a very challenging piece on how the liberal establishment and middle-grounders like I have underrated and laughed off the Fox Network as the voice of the right. It pains me to say so, but I think the article has a point: that the center and the left cannot ignore the center and right-of-center majority in this country. Sarah Palin is a joke, but there are too many who don't think she's funny. Massachusetts was also a bucket of frigid water thrown all over us. And Fox News has been quick to cover and encourage that bandwagon.
I'm not suggesting that the non-rightwingers should roll over and die, but I think we better learn to present the more progressive agenda in a more palatable way, perhaps breaking the programs into smaller chunks which can be understood, absorbed and digested more easily.
This starts with our President. I believe he can lead us in the right direction, but he has got to engage people on a more populist basis and stop projecting what has become his almost-too-cool image. I don't mean he should become simplistic and talk down to people, but he has to find a happy meeting ground where he can engage and convince. He's enough of an orator that he can find the right words and reach out on a more emotional level. He can still project his aura of brains and competence but with a lighter touch, and doing it a bit slower might help his program and aims in the long run. He also needs to roll up his sleeves and get his hands dirty with some tough politicking.
I don't like the Tea Partyists, Glenn Beck Bill O'Reilly or Sarah Palin. But they are not idiots and they are pressing the right buttons right now. Plain and simple, slow down the agenda a bit and reach out to their audience. Don't abdicate it to Fox.
As always you make a lot of sense. If the president doesn't do something, 2010 Congressional elections are going to be a disaster for the Dems. I talked to a cousin in Boston and he says Scott Brown is thought of as a moderate in that area. Coakley was a dud of a candidate.
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