The salient reality of the November 2010 congressional elections was the flight of white working class voters from the Democratic Party. The "Reagan Democrats" support has dropped to the lowest levels since the end of WW2. Obviously President Obama needs to devise political strategies to improve these dismal numbers. An excellent starting point would be to replace Joe Biden on the ticket with Senator James Webb of Virginia. Senator Webb - recently descrived as the Last of the FDR Democrats - has the gut instincts to bring these voters back home.
One of the startling outcomes of the 2010 mid-terms was the drop in white working class support for Democratic candidates. These were voters who had come around to support the D's in 2006 and especially in 2008 in higher numbers than in a long time - indeed since the heyday of the Democratic Party in the decades spanning FDR to JFK. These are the same voters who pulled the lever in 2008 for the first black President of the USA, so these voters flight now is not attributable to racism.
A recent article on Senator James Webb as "The Last of the FDR Democrats" lays things out clearly:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/...
As the article points out, Webb comes to the table as not only a highly decorated Vietnam combat veteran, but as someone who took on the Bush Administration during the depths of the Iraq War. Although he was once a Reagan appointee, he came back to the Democrats and helped them win a tough VA Senate seat in 2006. In the last two years, although he harbored doubts about the approach, he was a vote for the final health care reform bill. He was also an advocate for hitting Wall Street hard during the fiscal crisis for its sins - and was fended off by pro-Wall Streeters within the Democratic Party.
I don't agree on some points with Webb, e.g. his criticism of affirmative action that's mentioned in the article. But his critiques are within the pale of things that reasonable people can disagree over. They are the sort of discussions that are healthy in a diverse political movement.
But Webb has just the sort of gut instincts the Democrats need right now. He comes out of the bedrock tradition of the party when it was more than just a collection of interests - in the time of FDR and JFK, the Democrats were the Party of the Working Man (albeit, now that would be amended to Working People, heh). A true Jeffersonian Democrat, he would be able to take the angst and fears of the white working class voters and translate them into policies that appeal across the boundaries that developed in November.
Webb would steal back the "populist" label that fell by default to the Tea Parties and put it back where it belongs - in a Democratic Party that will not hesitate to hammer the plutocrats and special interests on behalf of Americans of all races and creeds who have seen their living standards drop decade after decade.
This would be a bold move. But it would reinvigorate and recreate in new ways the populist coalition that helped change America in 2008.
Do it Mr. President.
Obama-Webb 2012