some possibilities as to what's really going on

Obama is not a progressive. He has renounced virtually every Democratic group except angry blacks and affluent and/or idealistic college educated.

Either he has some plan other than the usual Democratic demographics in mind, or he doesn't really care about winning. Either way, he doesn't make sense until you notice how he speaks about the Democratic party. Rhetorically, he tends to lump "Democrat" and "Republican" together - as what needs changing.

He is deliberately antagonizing white working class people. Did everyone notice he retracted his apology for the bitter remark?

Every time we hear something outrageous, it follows a distinct pattern: first he waffles, then he makes it worse with comments about Annie Oakley and Typical White People.

We know his people are into coded language because they accuse others of using coded language. So they 'get' that what he's really saying is Marxist false consciousness/opiate of the masses stuff. I'm sorry but I'm not, and if you want to know more, the guy's name is Cone. Cone. Did you get that? C-O-....yeah. Go read him. Read about how all you have to do is be a beneficiary of the current system to be guilty of the sins of the nation.

And now Obama's supporters are attacking the lunch buckets, who are fighting back with astonishment as well as anger. The lunch buckets do not yet realize they are guilty of the sins of the nation. Heck, they don't even realize they are the targeted beneficiaries of the current system.

I have read that people think Obama is a savior because he says "what needs saying" - that working white are the cause of all America's problems. Too many people are saying this - it's not a normal thought, it's a planted one, one that coincidentally goes along with what a guy named Cone wrote. The idea that a segment of the population that is relatively powerless "needs to hear what is wrong with them".

That's not economic behavior. That's psychological - it's scapegoating. This is a nation being cleansed of its white guilt. Watch for the key words: if you're not with us, you're against us.

The beneficiaries will be the Republicans, who will be happy to receive the votes of the fleeing, alienated former Democrats, who will have no idea what the heck happened.

update: political heads more astute than my own seem to have nailed it. The "sinking ship" theory has that GOP Libertarians, long disenchanted with their own party's moralizing, have decided to appropriate the Democratic party as their own, kicking the real Democrats out in the process.

I have to admit, this is the most persuasive theory I've yet heard. Kos even agrees Hillary is "not a Dem" - asserting his right to decide and determine, and never mind his own credentials (or lack thereof).

Now correct me if I'm wrong here, but I understand their new Democratic Party would retain all the "liberal elite" culture while throwing out tolerance (the key word for Libertarians seems to be they get to do whatever they want, including hating on women, gays, etc) and throwing out the idea that the Democratic party can or should represent the common man - economically or any other way.

In other words, it's the worst of both parties, from the perspective of those who pay for other peoples' pleasures (that is, the working man), elevating selfishness to the single important political virtue while rejecting all forms of responsible behavior: rejecting the responsibilities espoused by each political position (right vs. left), and combining the areas where each party has admitted it's all right to be selfish - the selfish "me only" culture of the elite Democrats married to the selfish "me only" economic plan of the social darwinism via the Republicans.