I nominate “Economic poopulism” for felicitous typo of the month if not year.

On a slightly more serious note, I’m not sure I completely agree with the implication of the first sentence of your last paragraph. I certainly agree that Obama is not a “cultural conservative” for most useful meanings of the term, but I’m far less certain (e.g., than you seem to be) that his “symbolic cultural appeals and empty rhetoric” won’t peel off a meaningful fraction of actual cultural conservatives, particularly if the execrable Giuliani manages to capture the nomination (consider e.g. Ross D.’s writings on Obama, and consider also that Ross is far better at seeing through smoke than most).

The pack of dummies and hypocrites and two-faced degenerates (hello, Rudy) running for the GOP nod are a disgrace and a sure sign that the smart pols think the Dems will regain the White House in 2008 - as well they should. When a party has rolled out an abortion like the Bushpig Era it deserves to be punished - and it will be.

Economic poopulism’s success depends on the extent to which perception of economic realities is driven by, among other things, anxiety, fear and resentment. The GOP’s imagery and symbolism may somehow prevail over the other side’s imagery and symbolism (I have long been arguing that voters vote identity and symbolism, not policy), but right now, in Ohio, the GOP doesn’t strike the right notes. Plus, many Ohioans viscerally loathe the Republican Party as an institution because of state party misdeeds–that should not be left out of the equation. If Ohio is the decisive battleground state, I don’t see the GOP faring very well. The scale of GOP defeat will be determined by how many other states follow the Ohio model. On the narrow point that the GOP needs some sort of appeal to these voters to be competitive in states like Ohio, I will stick with my original argument.

The biggest potential flaw with this entire argument is thinking that the main battleground will be in the Midwest. If the decisive states are somewhere else, a different combination of issues would be more important. These predictions assume that 2006 economic populist campaigns were not a fluke that happened to succeed in a bad Republican year, but are a response to economic changes in the country. That analysis might be wrong, but I don’t think it is.

Of course I agree that there are no “culturally conservative” Democrats leading the race right now, and none is likely to appear on the scene. That is a significant gap on the Dems’ side and it could be the GOP’s saving grace. Then again, Sherrod Brown conquered in Ohio against a personally popular incumbent and, so far as I know, has no trace of cultural conservatism in him. That tells me that economic populists succeed in these environments when they simply push cultural issues to the side and do not make them a prominent part of their campaign.

This is yet another example of thinking voters are rational and respond to policy ideas, rather than the kind of image that a candidate puts forth. More here.