Politics of Condescension

It seems that the two Democratic presidential wannabees aren't so much tearing each other up but each tripping themselves up. Hillary Clinton had barely torpedoed her own campaign with her tale of imaginary snipers when Barack Obama comes along commiserating with affluent liberal donors in San Francisco about small town residents 'clinging' to guns or religion out of 'bitterness' over the economy.

Noemie Emery writes that Obama's revelation has been a pattern followed by some previous Democratic candidates.

After their unexpected loss in 2004, Democrats were much too impressed by Thomas Frank's treatise What's the Matter With Kansas? which complained that they lost because middle-class voters were too stupid to vote their 'real' interests (which were presumably served by the Democrats), because conservatives wickedly played on their fears. ('Fear' is the Democrats' answer for every vote they don't get.)