Flip Flop to Hip Hop?*

*AKA, “Abandon Hip?”

For a few weeks now, I’ve been collecting advice from pundits to John Kerry and headlining them under “Abandon Ship!” The idea is, guys who appear to be winning don’t get that kind of advice. But this has got to be the strangest one yet – John Tierney in yesterday’s New York Times:

So how can the ever-patrician Mr. Kerry appeal to poor and working-class voters? Russell Simmons, the hip-hop music and fashion mogul, recommends that Mr. Kerry spend more time visiting inner-city neighborhoods, preferably accompanied by rap stars, while still remaining true to his class. Mr. Simmons points to his own success as a marketing consultant to Courvoisier, the cognac with a Thurston Howell image that became a staple of hip-hop culture.

If you hear Kerry use the words “homies,” “bling-bling,” or “chillin'” this week, you’ll know why.