Isn't funny that cable news' talking heads – the Chris Matthews, the Tim Russerts, the Bill O'Reillys – all play up their blue collar roots, identifying as one of the people, when they earn millions of dollars a year and have more homes than you have limbs?

Every night at 5 and 7, Matthews acts like a psychic channeling the spirit of the working class. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, he insightfully informs his viewers, are just not the type to whom Joe Sixpack takes a liking: "Pennsylvania prefers a beefier sort to either of these people, Matthews claimed, "a more rustic, tougher sort than either of them." When neither Obama nor Clinton turned out to be particularly skilled bowlers, Matthews said gravely, "Maybe that tells you something about the Democratic party." [...]

Russert never hesitates to remind us that he's just "a blue-collar guy from Buffalo," Joe Sixpack's tribune in Washington, grabbing the powerful by the collar and snarling, "Look here, fancy boy, are you going to tell me the truth, or do I have to beat it out of you?" Russert and Matthews have more than their blue-collar affectation in common — Russert too has a house on Nantucket, where it's safe to say any regular folks he encounters are either busing his table or mowing his lawn. [...]

And when it comes to Blue Collar Chic, nobody can touch Bill O'Reilly, who has raised it to the level of performance art, infusing his every utterance with the pose of the average Joe, all toward convincing you that you're under attack from a bunch of college professors and ACLU lawyers. Pick up any of his books and you'll find that his ghostwriter (I'm presuming) has captured the voice perfectly; not too many authors punctuate their arguments with interjections like "I mean, come on" and "So there." [American Prospect]