UPDATED: You Missed the [Tea] Party, David Plouffe!
WaPo: David Plouffe advising White House on 2010 midterm elections.
He has lots of advising to do, by the way. But it sounds like he inhabits a universe where the Tea Party movement never happened:
He feels strongly that Democrats have done a poor job in drawing contrasts with Republicans, and in making sure that voters know what a GOP majority in the House or Senate would mean for the direction of the country.
He feels strongly and wrongly. A large segment of the electorate does not see elections as a binary choice anymore, but as an opportunity to assert their will on the political stage – from the bottom up – as opposed to passively picking between whatever choices party hacks put in front of them.
David Plouffe evidently is not aware of the Tea Party phenomenon or is in denial. At any rate, he wouldn’t know how to deal with it either way. Few if anyone in politics does, although there’s not much to it. It comes down to listening to the People. Not just hearing them, but listening to them. It is the People whom politicians are supposed to serve, after all.
UPDATE: Plouffe should go to TNR‘s website, here.
