Johah Goldberg on Joe the Puppeteer

I simply can't get enough Jonah Goldberg.  He is consistently the funniest, smartest guy writing on the right--ok, maybe he's tied with Mark Steyn.  He's got a piece this morning at National Review in which he compares Joe Thierrien, out of work puppeteer, with Joe Wurzelbacher--a.k.a. "Joe the Plumber".  It is a must read, especially for Goldberg's analysis of the wholesale abandonment of working-class whites by the Democratic establishment in favor of a coalition of the well-educated and largely lower class minorities.  Quoting Tom Edsall in the NYT, Goldberg writes:

“All pretense of trying to win a majority of the white working class has been effectively jettisoned in favor of cementing a center-left coalition made up . . . of voters who have gotten ahead on the basis of educational attainment — professors, artists, designers, editors, human resources managers, lawyers, librarians, social workers, teachers, and therapists — and a second, substantial constituency of lower-income voters who are disproportionately African American and Hispanic.”

The message here?  The Republican candidate for President MUST appeal to this group of working class whites.  The one doing so most effectively right now is Rick Santorum--and I would love to see Mitt Romney pick up the torch.  Working class whites have a streak of conservatism in them, and we can do better to swing them to our side. 

If you think that Republican prospects are better served targeting Hispanics with emotionally charged soliloquies about "law-abiding" illegals who have been here for 25 years, raising families and attending church etc--vote for Newt Gingrich.  If you feel our prospects are better served by getting the Reagan coalition back together...then Romney's your man.