This is sort of in response to Querty's "Don't just do something, sit there!" and the discussion of what, exactly, we can do. First let me say that I truly hate the demographic slice-and-dice obsession that the media has shown in this campaign (including here at TPM (including me)). I think it is tantamount to accepting Mark Penn's political philosophy as truth: that we are all waiting for the candidates to pander to our particular demographic slice, rather than trying to pick the best president for the country. I also think certain "truisms" that have evolved in the media about this race are not actually true in every state. Nonetheless, there clearly are some patterns. But I really believe the main reason that Obama lags in certain demographics (older voters, poor rural voters, latinos) is not because these voters are secretly or overtly more racist, nor because Hillary really has something to offer them something that Obama does not. I think the real reason for the disparity is that these groups, in general, get their information from different media than "we" do. Studies show that older voters get their news primarily from the nightly news on TV. Latinos may get their news from Spanish language stations. Poor rural voters may not have Internet access. That means these voters are getting their information through the filter of the talking heads on TV--and we all know what idiots they are. "We" get our information mostly from the Internet. We read Google news and TPM and we watch and email YouTube videos of Obama's entire speeches to our friends. We understand his message and the difference between Obama and his opponents. Obama's strength is his message* and that message is best delivered by Obama himself. His message is sophisticated and cannot be reduced to the 20-second sound bites that network television allows. I think the way to reach these voters is not to change his message, nor to pander by bowling, etc., but to find a way to expose these voters to his *full* message, direct from the horse's mouth. That's what's been effective for him so far. That's why when Obama visits a state, his poll numbers skyrocket: because more voters get more of his message. But I don't know how to do this on a wider scale. Obama is doing his part, with his whistle-stop tours, etc. But he can't be everywhere. You can't really buy 40 minutes of commercial airtime on network TV to show, for example, his whole race speech. You probably can't go door to door with a video iPod and expect people to watch him for 40 minutes on their front porches. How do you reach these voters without going through the criminally petty filter of TV punditry? * Before you accuse me of being cultishly vague; it was intentional. This post isn't about the content of that message, but, instead, about the best way to get it across.