'08 Hopefuls With No Place To Call Home

(The Politico)  By The Politico's Jonathan Martin.

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The 2008 presidential campaign has already produced the next generation of American politicians. They don't have local accents. That's because they don't have local roots. Nor do they boast legions of home-state friends, teachers and mentors who have spent years waiting for the proud day when their talented native son or daughter would run for president.

These are the candidates from nowhere — or everywhere.

With the race still in its early stages, the top tier of contenders in both parties is filled with people who reflect a new brand of post-regional politics. These candidates convey no distinct sense of place in either their personal style or political base.

Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain are the prototype examples. In both cases, they represent states where they had scant personal history until they settled there to run for office.

Barack Obama and Mitt Romney also reflect the trend. The Illinois senator, vying with Clinton for the Democratic nomination, was born in Hawaii and raised there and in Indonesia before settling in Chicago after an Ivy League education in New York and Boston. Republican Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, grew up in Michigan, and established his national profile by running the Winter Olympic Games in Utah.

Not one of these major politicians represents the state where they grew up or have family history — a new chapter in modern political history.

Among the first-rung candidates, only Democrat John Edwards of North Carolina and Republican Rudy Giuliani of New York are defined in the public mind vividly by where they are from. In both cases, these politicians have personal stories inextricably linked to their home states — a fact amplified by thick and unmistakable regional accents.

Until recently, this type of politician was the norm. Bill Clinton, for instance, was seasoned and deep-fried in his native Arkansas, and his personal story of growing up in "a place called Hope" (not to mention Hot Springs) was an important part of how he presented himself to national voters in 1992.

But 2008 is showing how the old assumptions about politics and regional identity are fading fast.

"There have been huge homogenizing influences of America in last 50 years," said Robert Lang, co-director of Virginia Tech's Metropolitan Institute and a professor of urban affairs and planning. "Everything that was a local brand is now nationalized." That includes politicians no less than beer and department stores.

In an earlier era, a candidate without thick local roots would have been at a distinct disadvantage trying to climb onto a national stage without a base of regional supporters, fellow politicians and donors. These days, the opposite may be true: Politicians with a muted geographical identity may be better positioned to compete in parts of the country — including fast-growing swing states like Nevada and Florida — where most folks are originally from somewhere else.

The 2008 candidates "represent the experience of a lot of Americans," said William Frey, a demographer and visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution. "They're living now in a different place than where they grew up."

A generation ago, if you learned that a candidate like Romney was a Harvard-educated Bostonian, it was a safe guess that he would be a lace-curtain Irishman like John F. Kennedy or a Brahmin in the tradition of the Cabots or Lodges. In his case, though, his father was a former automotive executive who became governor of Michigan.

A black pol from Chicago's South Side? Twenty years ago, that would most likely have been a first- or second-generation transplant up from Mississippi who paid his dues in the city's legendary ward politics. Think former Mayor Harold Washington. Obama, however, came to Chicago to lead voter registration efforts, practice law and teach at the University of Chicago's law school. His wife, Michelle, is from the city.

A female New York lawyer? Once that would have been an ambitious ethnic pol from one of the outer boroughs like former Reps. Elizabeth Holtzman, Bella Abzug or Geraldine Ferraro. Clinton, of course, broke many molds by running for office as a sitting first lady, and she was helped by the historic willingness of New Yorkers to welcome outsiders, as they did with Robert Kennedy in 1964.

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[gunownerdan]

It is obvious to me that the democrats and the republicans are trying as hard as they can to destroy our Bill Of Rights.
While democrats and republicans will take the same oath to protect and defend our constitution from any and all enemies, both will consistently ignore that oath while picking and choosing which parts of our constitution to ignore.
Often I feel like I'm the only person who even cares.
"If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is no recourse left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense which is paramount to all forms of positive government."
- Alexander Hamilton

[rray52]

It takes a peculiar personality to run for prez. In the first place

[frankly6]

Dan

It's going to come down to voting for the lesser of two evils. Every election will look like this until we have some real campaign finance reform and public financing of campaigns. All we have now is a handfull of candidates that represent different conglomerations of special interests.

[gunownerdan]

The list of candidates from BOTH of the major parties is proof that our Bill Of Rights and the very freedoms that it protects are in SERIOUS danger.

[antoniof123]

That settles it I am running too.