Democrat Message Misses Middle Class

Martin Frost, a former Democratic Congressman from Texas, says that according to liberal think tank Third-way, the Democratic message to middle class voters is all wrong.

In 2004, John Kerry lost middle class white voters by 22 points and Congressional Democrats lost middle class white voters by 19 points. Kerry lost all middle class voters as a group (including whites, Blacks and Hispanics) by 6 points.

According to Third-way, “Americans are optimistic about the nation’s future and their own; (Democratic) messaging is not. Americans see our society as a basically fair one, where hard work is rewarded; progressives emphasize obstacles to middle-class success.”

That's right - Americans are optimistic about the future. So forget about the recent CBS push polling data that show Americans as negative on Bush's economy. I trust internal Democratic data than I do about news polls that have a singular purpose of editorializing.

The study faults Democrats for always attacking the wealthy, noting “the middle-class aspires to wealth and doesn’t see big business or the wealthy as enemies.”

It adds that Democrats “downplay the strengths of the American economy…and fail to inspire conviction that America can continue to lead the world.”

Hmm. Looks like they have their work cut out for them.