Wiretap: Wanna win an election? Make like a bumpkin.

 
If you look closely, what you see in the midterms is the bumpkinification of the election. This is nothing new. It goes back at least as far as Andrew Jackson, the first populist-sounding president. But now it’s everywhere, in both parties, but especially in TV ads, writes Mark Leibovich in the New York Times. As one example, he cites Georgia Democratic congressman John Barrow, who is shown tossing a tennis ball to a golden retriever as he says in a deep Georgia drawl: “Someone once said, if you want a friend in Washington, get a dog. Well, I wouldn’t wish Washington on a dog.” Left unsaid, of course, is why the Harvard Law graduate is running for the punishment of spending his sixth term there.

Here’s another one of Barrow’s gem TV ads.

For Democrats, it’s the Beatles. For Republicans, it’s George Strait. For Democrats, it’s Maya Angelou. For Republicans, it’s Dr. Ben Carson. The political and cultural divide, as counted by Facebook.

If you wonder why you’re still seeing all those ads from Democrats on reproductive rights, Ron Brownstein explains in the National Journal: Single and college-educated women are the Dems’ last hope to keep the Senate.

John Feehery offers up five reasons why Republicans will beat expectations in the midterms. Via the Wall Street Journal.

Legalizing marijuana: The second wave. Voters in Oregon, Alaska and Washington D.C. may determine whether this becomes a national trend. Via the New York Times.

Ta-Nehisi Coates on Charles Barkley and the plague of “unintelligent” blacks. Via the Atlantic.

Voter disenfranchisement continues. And, writes Jeffrey Toobin in the New Yorker, the Supreme Court doesn’t care.

Did the government really hack Sharyl Attkisson’s laptop? Vox doesn’t think it’s very likely.

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