President Obama won an Electoral College landslide and a 3 or 4-point national victory – against the great odds posed by prolonged high unemployment, lack of income gains, a barely perceptible recovery and political gridlock that kept his job approval at just 50 percent at best.
He won because he was able to engage the diverse national coalition of Latinos, African Americans and Asians, young people and unmarried women who formed nearly half the electorate, despite the fact that these groups suffered the brunt of recession and have benefited least from the halting recovery.
He also succeeded because he waged class war and won. That was how he was able to define the choice, winning back voters who had been hammered by the economy and getting them mobilized again. That he waged class warfare successfully has critical consequences for what is the mandate in the weeks and months ahead. [cont.]
Greenberg, Carville, Seifert, Borosage