Dear Phil Bredesen--STFU

That's not a very nice thing to say to your governor, but I don't have a whole lot of patience for so-called Democrats who continue to use right-wing frames:

“Instead of giving big speeches at big stadiums, he needs to give straight-up 10-word answers to people at Wal-Mart about how he would improve their lives.”

He might as well have said, "I'm a Democratic governor and I fully agree with John McCain's Paris Hilton ad. Obama just gives big speeches in big stadiums and can't relate to common folk." That may not have been what Bredesen MEANT to say, but that's exactly how it will be interpreted.

Obama has done quite well by acknowledging that voters are not children, they don't need everything boiled down into little sound bites. And Bredesen himself isn't capable of giving concise answers to questions. Hell, Bredesen resents it when you even ask the question.

“I would really like to see him do things in Tennessee that would help in other working-class and blue-collar places, like Ohio,” Mr. Bredesen said. “Job security and health care are huge here. He needs to come to the aisle of Home Depot and show them that a Harvard graduate — which I am as well — knows how to help them.”

I've got a better idea. Maybe Obama should go do all that...IN OHIO. I understand that it's Bredesen's job to promote Democrats in Tennessee, but somehow I don't think Ohio and Tennessee are in exactly the same situation here.

Also, I would challenge Bredesen to do what he's proposing Obama do. Go to Home Depot and confront the people whom he cut from TennCare, and let them say whether or not they think that particular Haaaahvahd graduate has helped them all that much.

I hear "advice" like this directed at Barack Obama, and I can't help but think back to Harold Ford going to that bar with the Confederate flag while dressed in camouflage. He went directly to those voters and told them that he could relate to them. And they still didn't vote for him. Voters know bullshit when they see it.

I don't have a whole lot of hope for Bredesen's last two years. All I ask is that he doesn't hand Bill Frist the governor's office on a silver platter.