Rolling in the Mud

This Mudcat Saunders thing is made all the weirder by the fact that he is advising John Edwards, much beloved by the liberal bloggers whom Saunders castigates. I personally think this is all some kind of simmering rage from being smacked down by Tom Schaller at Yearly Kos last year. And anyone decrying the existence of a "Metropolitan Opera wing" of the Democratic Party (which may indeed be a constituency, but it certainly doesn't match up with online activists) is essentially saying that there shouldn't be a "smart wing" of the party, which strikes me as a little bit how we received our current President.

I don't know what to make of the Edwards thing, but you can't win the Presidency with just one strategy, so if Saunders wants to try to win rural voters in the South and stay the hell offline, fine with me. I'm not quite hopeful that appealing to Southern whites would succeed and would rather see a Western strategy as put forth by Schaller in Whistling Past Dixie, but Edwards does have the right message on economic justice that could theoretically work. And Saunders did advise Jim Webb, too. If he hates bloggers so much, why does he always hook up with netroots darlings? Maybe because he likes winning.

Democrats and Rural America

Before relinquishing my subbing duties, I wanted to touch on two important (and related) stories that broke today, both of which speak to the growing importance of the rural vote to the Democratic base.

First up, Dave "Mudcat" Saunders, rural liaison for the John Edwards campaign sparked a firestorm today in his inaugural post on Time's Swampland by ripping into the leftwing blogosphere, appearing to bite the hand that feeds as it were:

So to those bloggers who believe in a straight-forward dialogue and exchange of ideas, God bless you and thank you. Together, you're coming up with a lot of good stuff, and frankly, much of it has been helpful to me. At the same time, those Democratic bloggers, who have appointed themselves as intellectually superior and believe the only way to win an argument is to shot the loudest with personal attacks, you can go to Hell. Intellectually superior? The truth is these people remind me of the guy who told so many people he had a horse that he finally went and bought a saddle. The "incivility" in their tones tell me they would be much more happy following "pro rasslin" than the political blogs.

Well, he certainly appears to be asserting the inherent virtue of middle America vs. the coastal urban elites as he sees them, yet later he issued a response to the not so kind reaction he got to his first post:

Nowhere in my first post did I say I was "anti-blogging". Quite to the contrary, I said to bloggers who want to take the Democratic Party back into the big tent, "God bless you and thank you." I was quoted saying after the Webb election that the "bloggers" led the way...The blogs are the Democratic Party's greatest source of power and unity. Why would I am be anti-blogging? In other words, I wasn't talking to all of you. Just some of you.

Where in my post did I say I was anti-urban? I was on Carlson with Sharpton before the SC Democratic debate and said clearly (Sharpton agreed) that the problems of Urban America and Rural America are mirror images of each other, and the problem is that few candidates will talk about our common ground of economic unfairness and disparity.

So whose side is he on, exactly? Chris Bowers sees some contradictions in his posts. And I have to wonder, is this an example of a lack of discipline on the Edwards camp's part or is the message Saunders is sending out really to be seen as separate from his capacity as a liaison between Edwards and rural America?

This is all appropos to a Center for Rural Strategies poll that came out today that shows while rural areas of the country are certainly conservative, Democrats have made significant inroads.

Rural voters remain more conservative than the nation as a whole, creating an opportunity for Republicans to make up their losses, according to the poll of 804 rural likely voters conducted this month.

Rural voters deliver a narrow plurality to a generic Democratic candidate for President: 46 - 43 percent. In contrast, President Bush won the rural vote in 2004 by 19 points.

The poll indicates that a large part of the reason for the erosion of support for Republicans among this traditionally Republican stronghold, is the Iraq War. Stoller sees the results as a rebuke of Stu Rothenberg's concern troll predictions, Sirota sees it as a rebuke of DC Democratic consultants's concern troll warnings not to run against the war in conservative districts lest they suffer losses and MissLaura sees it as a rebuke of good old Mudcat himself.