The Republicans have alienated whole professions. Lawyers now donate to the Democratic Party over the Republican Party at 4-to-1 rates. With doctors, it’s 2-to-1. With tech executives, it’s 5-to-1. With investment bankers, it’s 2-to-1. It took talent for Republicans to lose the banking community.

…

This year could have changed things. The G.O.P. had three urbane presidential candidates. But the class-warfare clichés took control. Rudy Giuliani disdained cosmopolitans at the Republican convention. Mitt Romney gave a speech attacking “eastern elites.” (Mitt Romney!) John McCain picked Sarah Palin.

Palin is smart, politically skilled, courageous and likable. Her convention and debate performances were impressive. But no American politician plays the class-warfare card as constantly as Palin. Nobody so relentlessly divides the world between the “normal Joe Sixpack American” and the coastal elite.

….

And so, politically, the G.O.P. is squeezed at both ends. The party is losing the working class by sins of omission — because it has not developed policies to address economic anxiety. It has lost the educated class by sins of commission — by telling members of that class to go away.

From the NYTIMES.

Earlier this week, the House Oversight Committee revealed that just one week receiving an $85 billion bailout, AIG executives went on a retreat to a luxury resort, spending nearly $500,000 on manicures, facials, pedicures, and massages, among other things. After being ridiculed for the vacation, AIG announced today that the parties are over. From an announcement they issued this afternoon:

Earlier today, AIG announced an important policy change - one that we wanted to be sure you knew about. A short time ago, our Chairman and CEO Ed Liddy said that he has ordered the immediate cancellation of all outside meetings, conferences, and recognition events across AIG, except those that are required by law or that are deemed absolutely critical to sustain our ongoing business needs.

Today, AIG canceled a specific party, originally scheduled for next week at the Ritz-Carlton in California’s Half Moon Bay, “after a re- evaluation of the costs under the new circumstances,” according to spokesman Joe Norton.

Senator Barack Obama is ramping up his efforts to boost turnout in November among younger voters.

Officials at MTV Networks report that he has bought commercial time on three of its networks, Comedy Central, VH1 and Spike, and that his ads could begin running on those outlets as early as Thursday.

Until this year, MTV’s networks did not accept political advertising, and Mr. Obama becomes the first presidential campaign to buy time with them, an official at MTV said.

Mr. Obama’s latest purchase of advertising adds yet another layer to what has been one of the most multi-layered, presidential advertising campaigns in history, reaching all sorts of voters with specially tailored messages on their specially tailored outlets.

Mr. Obama’s campaign confirmed it has made a “youth buy” but did not share the duration of this new rotation.