White guy reporters glaim white guy America

By Frank Moraes

This is shocking. But maybe it shouldn't be. Politico is a pathetic publication.

Digby (who either reads 3,000 words per minute or has some kind of magical power) directed me to Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen's new article, Lessons learned from 2012. Not everything they have to say is wrong, much less shocking. They note that the Republicans really need to start running more reasonable candidates. The Tea Party types may make the base feel good, but they scare away everyone else. That's true, but hardly the kind of "first to publish this stuff" material that Politico is known for (and the main reason they suck so much of the time).

They also note that "white men" is not enough of a coalition in a two-party system. But I guess this is supposed to mean that Obama too doesn't represent the country. They write:

If President Barack Obama wins, he will be the popular choice of Hispanics, African-Americans, single women and highly educated urban whites. That's what the polling has consistently shown in the final days of the campaign. It looks more likely than not that he will lose independents, and it’s possible he will get a lower percentage of white voters than George W. Bush got of Hispanic voters in 2000.

A broad mandate this is not.

Currently, white men make up 36% of the electorate and Obama is likely to win about a third of them. I don't see how doing poorly with one demographic group that is shrinking means that Obama does not have a broad mandate. But maybe there is something else going on here.

Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen are two white male reporters. I think that perhaps their white maleness is causing them to over-value their own demographic group. 

(Cross-posted at Frankly Curious.)