The Moshing Beltway Elites [Journolist]

Mark Penn, the famous pollster, author, business consultant and democratic über operative wrote a piece in Politico the other day, titled: ‘The Big Disconnect: D.C. Elites Think Obama Will Be Reelected, But The Public Doubts It’ and in it discusses the fact that Obama is losing the confidence of the American people, while D.C. moshes to Obama. Penn's article received some discussion but more is warranted in my opinion.

While it is true Penn has worked for the Clintons, and presumably has a certain degree of loyalty to them, it nevertheless must be quite painful for Penn to write about Barack Obama’s failing presidency. For after all, Obama was the democrats’ answer to just about everything. A failing Obama presidency is not what the democrats had envisioned . . . certainly not 22 months into it.

In his piece, Penn cites a recent Politico Poll which finds just 26% believing that Obama will be reelected in 2012. However, Penn also notes that 49% of those polled living inside the beltway, believe Obama will be reelected in 2012. Penn interestingly refers to these ‘inside the beltway’ folks as ‘elites’ and suggests these ‘elites’ are entirely out of their gourds. OK, he doesn’t exactly say that but Penn does suggest these so called ‘elites’ are a segment of the population that are severely out of touch. Case in point, Penn indicates some 70% of the beltway elites admit they really haven’t been affected by our current economic downturn and that a whopping 80% polled believe the Tea Party movement to be a mere “fad.”

That last bit about the tea party being a “fad” to me seals the deal that those inside the beltway are entirely out of touch. For the tea party movement is something that clearly isn’t going away, not when it can be credited with the GOP taking back the house.

With the majority of those in the D.C. beltway likely employed by Uncle Sam with average government salaries nearly 2x that of their private sector counterparts, it is easy to understand how 70% of the D.C. beltway crowd have so far been unaffected by our current economic mess. The federal government has a way of embedding security within the psyche of its employees. I guess the reason federal employees feel secure is the fact that they are indeed very secure.

All of the above talk of elitists and their divergent opinions leads Penn to wonder if the president really understands that he ain’t so popular outside the beltway chatter box.

I would say Penn’s piece was written as a bit of free advice for a tone deaf president named Barack Obama, as much as it was for Politico.

But what do I know, I ain't an elite and don't mosh.

posted by Open Blogger at 04:44 PM

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