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Great Reportage

Obama’s Ohio Problem

George Packer on the ground war.

Refrain from Election 2004: How could a Democrat possibly lose Ohio? In this week’s New Yorker, George Packer had some deep reportage on how the party could blow it again. Talking with the white working class, Packer finds maximum Obama skepticism. Some of it is tied to race—or Obama’s exoticism, which is almost the same thing. But much is a lingering wound from 1980s, where union power faded and the Democratic Party was unable to stem job loss. It’s what Obama was talking about in his “bitter” speech, before he undid his diagnosis.

Read it at The New Yorker

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