Barone's Reductionist Theory

Two items of interest along somewhat similar lines:

» First up is Michael Barone's "Academics vs Jacksonians" take on the current Democratic divide. There's already been a few good takedowns on this article[*], and it's easy to see the problems it has - a long, drawn-out, complex election with numerous sidestories and tangents ... and reduced into two simple paradigms of understanding. What could possibly go wrong?

The geographic disparity of Obama's results are certainly interesting stuff to analyze. And my own sense is that for all the urban/suburban clamoring for the transformative, post-partisan, post-racial Clintonian incrementalism that Obama represents, it's worth peeking into those smaller counties to see how it's playing. Here in Texas, it's particularly worth a double-check on some of those WD40 State Rep districts - not the least of which is the one we're defending as an open seat this time around.

Now, that's not to suggest that everyone living in Victoria is a Jacksonian and everyone living in the Heights is an academic. That would just be flat-out silly to suggest.

» Michael Sokolove has a good long read in the NYT Sunday Mag on how Obama's playing in Levittown, PA. The analysis isn't without it's own imperfections, but it strikes me as a somewhat richer means of understanding the same thing Barone attempts to deconstruct into "Scotch-Irish" vs "Eggheads."

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* See Ed Kilgore, as always, for the essential takedown on all things Barone. Yglesias adds a nice short take, and the Electoral Map blog takes a look and Jonathan Chait adds his two cents in a broader take on the matter.