Not Listening

In today's online edition of Newsweek I argue that Obama has cut himself off from the centrist Republicans who gave him his margin of victory in 2008.

In today's online edition of Newsweek I argue that Obama has cut himself off from the centrist Republicans who gave him his margin of victory in 2008.

The Republican base is divided into two main types: old-style and new-style.

Old-style Republicans are your father's Republican: affluent, credentialed, secular.

New-style Republicans are those who have joined the party since the 1960s: less affluent and more religious.

In 2008, Candidate Obama succeeded in winning the first group: college-educated whites outside the South, voters who earned more than $200,000. He gained the support of business leaders like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett—and of more than one immediate family member of past chairs of the Republican National Committee.

But that was then.

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