Liberal word of the day: Xenophobia

Greg Sargent, Talking Points Memo:

The memos show even more clearly than before that chief Hillary strategist Mark Penn advocated a brutally negative and xenophobic campaign against Obama. . . .

Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo:

In a sense the revelations of Mark Penn's 'xenophobia' memos is old news, a post-mortem on a campaign that was all-consuming three months ago and now part of history. . .

What they are referring to is Penn's suggestion that Hillary portray Obama's experience as less than all-American. Well, hello? Obama grew up in Indonesia, for crying out loud. Did I mention his mother named him Barack Hussein Obama?

He's exotic and cosmopolitan, and as much as the progressives at TPM may think that exotic and cosmopolitan are good things, the guy driving the forklift on the loading dock may not see it the same way. Since when was the Democratic Party averse to appealing to the ordinary sensibilities of the guy on the forklift?

Liberal intellectuals will be the death of the Democratic Party. Maybe not this year, but eventually. You can't win elections by campaigning against the electorate.