Radical Middle (class)

by digby

Greg Sargent reported earlier today that the latest polls show that the conservative attack on Elizabeth Warren isn’t taking hold:

The poll finds that Warren has edged ahead of Scott Brown among registered Massachusetts voters, 43-39, though that’s within the margin of error. What’s more interesting is what the internals tell us about whether each side’s message is resonating. For instance:

Warren’s candidacy appears to resonate strongly among lower and middle class voters. Respondents earning $40,000-$100,000 support Warren by 11 points (48 percent to 37 percent), while those making less than $40,000 support her by of 15 points (42 percent to 27 percent).

This, despite the fact that the primary target of efforts to link Warren to Occupy Wall Street are working class whites from places like south Boston who (the theory goes) should be culturally alienated by Warren’s embrace of the protests.

He points out that Independents aren’t rallying and that Warren is seen as less moderate that Scott Brown. But at this point in our history being perceived as “moderate” may not be the selling point people usually think it is.

Warren is the candidate most closely aligned with the Occupy Movement and has handled the attacks on her for it with spirit and intelligence. Perhaps the most important result of her successful counter attack is this:

Warren holds the edge on which candidate is trusted more on the economy (38-32) and even taxes (37-30).

Greg muses:

Perhaps Massachusetts voters don’t find the message expressed in that viral video — that it’s fair to ask the wealthy to pay a bit more in taxes to keep the society that helped them get rich functioning smoothly — to be so radical after all.

That would explain why Frank Luntz is “scared to death.”