The MSM has labeled Obama's post-Massachusetts demagoguery as "populism." This is reported as his "response" to the Tea Party spirit that's giving Dems the willies about November. Both Obama and the MSM can't understand why the President's reaction and their characterization of it is in fact a smear against Tea Partiers and their real concerns.

In that light, it's  worth revisiting Arthur Brooks wonderful op-ed from last spring on "Ethical Populism," the source of the excerpt above.

As Brooks explains, ethical populism has motivated millions of non-political members of the middle class to become Tea Partiers. Among other things they are deeply offended and disturbed by the hypocrisy that Michael Barone reported on this week, "Under Obama, Crony Capitalism Again Rules the Day." (h/t Capitol Confidential). There's plenty of crony capitalism going on right here in Michigan, too, from Michael Moore's pursuit corporate welfare of film subsidies (and that program in general), to bipartisan votes in the state House and Senate authorizing nearly half a billion dollars in handouts to electric car battery makers and related crony capitalists.