"Forget consensus politics – now it's Barack Obama the class warrior"

Michael Cohen (GuardianUK):

Obama is trying to activate one of the more pervasive and effective political stereotypes in American political history – one that Truman rode to victory in 1948: Republicans are for the haves, Democrats for the have-nots. To seasoned observers, this might seem discordant. But when your opponents are willing to resist even the slightest tax increase on the wealthiest and practically embody the most damaging political caricature of Republicans, only a fool would fail to use such an effective political weapon.
(SNIP)
Alas, the repairing of the nation's divisions that the president seeks so desperately appears to be far out of his grasp. If anything, the election of 2012 might end up being eerily reminiscent of Obama's other favoured campaign slogan from 2008 – more of the same. MORE...