Jonah makes a good point here: ”And for all the hand-wringing about her [Sarah Palin] representing conservative identity politics — a point I basically agree with and lament somewhat — you’d also think no veep was ever picked to reach out to a vital constituency before.”
Of course, much of the debate about the middle class (Sam’s Club shoppers), winning the Hispanic, youth, and single mother vote, etc., is about identity politics too. Those who would divide the citizenry into categories (which are sometimes ill-defined) have a tougher case to make against identity politics.