Thanks Munich for the extremely thoughtful and well-argued reply.

I must say that I agree with you on the class basis of this phenomenon. The tendency towards elitist condescension, to my mind, in the Democratic party started with the gradual loss of the South to the Republican Party following LBJ's courageous, but also fratricidal decision to enact civil and voting rights legislation. As the Democrats lost representation and power in the South, the party also lost probably half or more of its populist base (an essential part of the New Deal coalition). Having been raised in eastern NC in the 60s and early 70s, I can tell you that initially race and racism were the foremost issues driving the migration of Southern voters to the Republican Party, but rather than re-tool our message in an attempt to rebuild the base (without the racist ideology or racist coding), we just gave up and ceded the South to the Republicans.

Now the shoe seems to be on the other foot as large numbers of people seem to be "migrating" back to the Democratic Party. Our problem is that we have too few voices who can speak to those "migrants" who are motivated by populist sentiments. It's a shame that John Edwards was not able to catch fire, as it were. He still might be a good choice for vice president; however, he would not be able to swing North Carolina to the Democratic column in November. He really is not very well liked in the state. Having spent most of my adult life in Greater Washington, I will suggest that Virginia is probably very much in play.

Our inability at a national level to speak to the working class, to the rural voter, to the Western voter, to the Southern voter (even in the absence of "strong" racist sentiment) is pathetic, and unfortunately, even if Obama were able to pick up the language, his manner, so professorial, is not a great selling point when it comes to these voters. We're talking presentation here. Even if interested, Obama does not have enough time to rid himself of his stylistically academic demeanor. What these people want is someone who speaks up for those issues which help them and in a voice that cannot be mistaken for cynical vote grabbing. They could care less about Obama's "transformative signature," and I haven't heard anyone in NC "lookin' for the revolution."

I moved back to NC about 2 years ago, and I must confess I don't really know any highly educated, latte-drinking, biscotti-munching people of either political persuasion. In fact, you have to go to McDonald's to get a latte in my little town. So I won't be able to test your conclusions empirically, I will say that while I agree there is a class basis to this reprehensible behavior moreso than a political basis, the Republicans still have a major lead on us in populist presentation, but then again, many of them were Democratic officeholders in the 70s.

Thanks again for your comments. I've been spending most of my time on Salon, but I must say Slate discussion threads are more on target, and certainly easier to follow.