I’ve got news for all the latte-drinking, Prius-driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust fund babies crowding in to hear him speak! This guy won’t last a round against the Republican attack machine. He’s a poet, not a fighter. ~Tom Buffenbarger

Meanwhile, Obama racks up the endorsement of the Boilermakers and will soon have the Teamsters as well.  Obviously, nothing says “latte-drinking” like James Hoffa. 

It may be right that Obama will fare poorly against Republican attacks, and I do think that the impression he leaves that he is somehow above it all will dissatisfy Democrats who prefer a more combative, brawler style.  However, the electoral reality that used to support this critique of Obama as the candidate of wine-track yuppies and spoiled college kids has changed.  In Wisconsin he prevailed with the support of many low-income Midwestern white voters whose support he hadn’t received on this scale before in the nominating contest.  The regular Democratic voters, the “Mondale coalition” types, who were Clinton’s bedrock, have begun moving to him.  Complaints like the one above are the yelps of those constituencies that backed the wrong horse.  They are now striking out angrily, because this is not how it’s supposed to work.  The establishment candidate is supposed to lock down the core constituencies of the party, and the drippy progressive protest candidate is supposed to go away after “injecting new ideas” into the debate.  That is the way it has worked in the modern nominating process for almost thirty years, so you can imagine how the people who sided with the establishment in this cycle are feeling ripped off.

Update: Apparently the crowd Buffenbarger was addressing started booing him, and others were trying to shoo him off the stage.  It’s a good thing the Clintons have a solid, disciplined campaign operation, or else they might have problems!

Filed under: politics