Michigan's Macomb County, north of Detroit, is a classic election bellwether. Home to many European ethnic factory workers, it was a Democratic bastion for years. Then it became the original home of the "Reagan Democrats," and it's been close ever since. Gore won in 2000 by a whisker. The area has been hit by outsourcing and factory closings.
I bought a truck there right before the election and of course counted yard signs. It's like Chicago; people are politics-crazy, and there were numerous signs for candidates from drain commissioner on up. But I saw very few for either Bush or Kerry. People didn't particularly like either one of them, it seemed.
In 2004 Bush won Macomb by a 54-to-46 percent margin. But a funny thing happened in the lower-level races: the Democrats scored a breakthrough. They dominate the Macomb County Commission for the first time in years.
Meanwhile, big-money Oakland County next door went for Gore by a nose in 2000 and by a larger margin this time.
The moral? I don't know. But nominating candidates who carry that "friend of working people" aura is something we need to be thinking seriously about.