The Pitch explains how liberal-leaning Kansas City Democrats end up at a fund-raiser for conservative Republican Senator Kit Bond. Of course, maybe Bond is more moderate than his opponents are willing to admit. Conservatives want less public spending, Bond is giving us more. Liberals want to raise taxes, Bond cuts them.
The last page of the article has some very interesting comments about race. Apparently Republicans who court the African-American vote do better in the suburbs, even if they don't gain any African-American votes. It is good strategy to reach out to all voters. When people see that, they say to themselves, "He may not agree with me, but at least he won't ignore me."
Angry politicians, like Pat Buchanan and Howard Dean, suffer from the scorched earth politics they use to gain fanatical followers. When people see that kind of anger, they say to themselves, "If I don't agree with him he'll hate my guts and shut me out."
