All about the benjamins

Philip Klinkner over at Polysigh examines the numbers, and says it's not the evangelicals that put Bush in the White House, but the rich folks:

In contrast to the lack of change along religious lines, there was change along class lines. In 2000, those making more than $50,000 made up 53% of the electorate and gave 52% of their votes to Bush, for a Bush performance of .28. In 2004, those making over $50,000 made up 55% of the electorate and gave 56% of their votes to Bush, for a Bush performance of 31. Also, these shifts were concentrated in the highest end of the income spectrum. Those making more than $100,000 went from 15 % of the electorate in 2000 to 18% in 2004, and Bush' support in this group went from 54 to 58 percent, causing Bush's performance to increase from .08 to .10. In fact, this jump of .02 points was what allowed George W. Bush best John Kerry.

If this is true (and there is no reason to doubt him at this point), that would mean all this evangelical hand wringing is for naught. While I still think it is important to reframe the moral debate (at this point I can see nothing to lose from it), it is more important that we not spin our wheels unnecessarily.

Rough math means that 8.5 million votes for Bush in 2000 came from those who made over $100,000. This election cycle, 11.5 million votes came from those making over $100,000. This would account for his victory, no?

I wonder, however, how many numbers you can crunch that would account for Bush's victory margin. Numbers I've seen say Bush increased his share of the Hispanic vote as well. Would the margin be enough to account for his election? I'm not sure.

The point is, I guess, we can all look back in anger at November 2nd and struggle to find answers. That's cool for a while. But there is a gut instinct in me that says simply "we failed to get our message out." More to the point, we failed to have a cohesive message.

We are in an age of marketing. Republicans have sold themselves as the party of morals and values. What is it the Democrats sell themselves as? I should know this. But I don't. And that is a big failure, as I've said before.

Again, go read Saletan. He's got a proposal already:

That message is responsibility.

It's a start, anyway.