Election 2008

[bjorn_skurj]

Sure, hope may be preached, and change may be promised, but without ction it is a false hope, and a deadly change.

[Duck-Billed Catechist]

Craziness

 

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2...he_size_of.html

 

[solace]

i'm guessing most of them were just there to see the Decemberists...

 

[bjorn_skurj]

i'm guessing most of them were just there to see the Decemberists...

 

Heh.

[Calexico]

Is the rest of the United States just as bored to death of this flogging a dead horse election as the rest of the world seems to be?

[bjorn_skurj]

No, not really. I'm not, at least.

[Calexico]

OK, so it is just me...fair enough.

[Atticus]

Is the rest of the United States just as bored to death of this flogging a dead horse election as the rest of the world seems to be?

 

I think it is clear to most americans that if the democrats take the white house the terra-ists have finally won, seeing how the republicans have the only true on-the-job experience at producing, promoting and performing a war on terra.

[Good Old Neon]

Is the rest of the United States just as bored to death of this flogging a dead horse election as the rest of the world seems to be?

 

I can't speak for anyone but meself, but at this point, I pretty much break out in hives and cold sweats whenever either candidates name passes before my eyes or ears.

 

At this stage of the game, the showdown has all the depth of a Coke vs. Pepsi debate...honest to christ....

[Good Old Neon]

Come now, am I the only one who thinks all this talk of size has nothing to do with Iran?

 

McCain, Obama scrap about size of Iran's threat - CNN

 

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/05/19/mcc...rade/index.html

[Gobias Industries]

@the letter: If you're going to call someone the antichrist, at least spell it right. "Anticrist"? For fucking real, man...go back to elementary school.

 

McCain, Obama scrap about size of Iran's threat - CNN

 

by "the size of Iran's threat," they're really not talking about nuclear weapons, but something else Iran has...

[tugmoose]

Former KKK recruiter endorses . . . Obama.

[Analogman]

Update on the other thing I posted:

 

[uPDATE] Wow. I didn't write this thinking that DIGG would send tens of thousands of people to my "insignificant" blog. I don't know who faxed it. It could have been the GOP for all I know. I'm sure someone faxed all the veterinarians and said that one candidate REALLY likes animals and the other one just pretends.

I was going to take a photo or scan it in but then everyone would say I faked it and this whole thing would keep it going. I'm glad our primary is over tomorrow.

 

I don't talk politics. However when I came into my office today I found this FAX in the tray. I know politics are fierce but if her organization did this: I am shocked!! What do they want us to do? Tell our church people to vote for Hillary? And lose our 501©3 tax status?

 

 

 

 

 

15 Whitest States in America

 

by population, and by who won the primary...

 

Maine BARACK

 

Vermont BARACK

 

West Virginia HILLARY

 

New Hampshire HILLARY (BARACK lost by 2.6%)

 

Iowa BARACK

 

North Dakota BARACK

 

Montana

 

Kentucky

 

Wyoming BARACK

 

Idaho BARACK

 

South Dakota

 

Minnesota BARACK

 

Wisconsin BARACK

 

Nebraska BARACK

 

Indiana HILLARY (BARACK lost by 1.1% to 2%)

 

source

[Good Old Neon]

Update on the other thing I posted:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

source

 

If this keeps up, the end is nigh....

[Duck-Billed Catechist]

Update on the other thing I posted:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

source

Obama has done well in the REALLY white states. The places he has not done well with whites are mostly places with some amount of black population. This is a historical trend going back to reconstruction.

 

I believe I read in this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Politicians-Re...2000&sr=8-1

 

that blacks in Georgia suffered less harassment and were able to form political alliances with whites in counties with a lower percentage of black population. Blacks were seen as economic competitors in places with a higher percentage of black populations and thus poor whites were less likely the ally with them.

[mountain bed]

Former KKK recruiter endorses . . . Obama.

It's never too late to see the error of your previous convictions.

[mountain bed]

OK you guys (and gals) we've mentioned this a little bit here, but now it seems undeniable - Barack has a pretty severe Appalachian Problem. This seems worthy of discussion to me.

 

Rural Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Southern Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Southern Indiana as well - he's just had his ass kicked all over this area, which raises some rather disturbing questions. Is this racism rearing its ugly head? (I'm generalizing here - I do NOT mean to offend my friends who live in these areas). It's looking more and more like Rev. Wright and the "bitter" comment have done more damage than I first thought.

 

Interesting stat: Obama's win in OR - 1/2 of all voters with a college degree, only 1/3 of those voted HRC. Hill's win in KY - 1/3 with a degree, only 1/4 of those voted Obama. Hmmm.

 

This failure to connect with the majority of voters in Appalachia might have a sizeable influence in the picking of a VP. There's been talk of the PA or OH Govs being given consideration. But I'm not sure if this will cure his problem - Edwards' endorsement last week seems to have had no effect (at least in KY). He has 6 months to change the situation but how?

[bjorn_skurj]

Maybe Obama could get a living member of Lynyrd Skynyrd to be his veep.

[mountain bed]

Maybe Obama could get a living member of Lynyrd Skynyrd to be his veep.

Heh. I didn't know there were any.

[jff]

Heh. I didn't know there were any.

 

Here's one:

 

Gary Rossington

[Analogman]

OK you guys (and gals) we've mentioned this a little bit here, but now it seems undeniable - Barack has a pretty severe Appalachian Problem. This seems worthy of discussion to me.

 

Rural Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Southern Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Southern Indiana as well - he's just had his ass kicked all over this area, which raises some rather disturbing questions. Is this racism rearing its ugly head? (I'm generalizing here - I do NOT mean to offend my friends who live in these areas). It's looking more and more like Rev. Wright and the "bitter" comment have done more damage than I first thought.

 

Interesting stat: Obama's win in OR - 1/2 of all voters with a college degree, only 1/3 of those voted HRC. Hill's win in KY - 1/3 with a degree, only 1/4 of those voted Obama. Hmmm.

 

This failure to connect with the majority of voters in Appalachia might have a sizeable influence in the picking of a VP. There's been talk of the PA or OH Govs being given consideration. But I'm not sure if this will cure his problem - Edwards' endorsement last week seems to have had no effect (at least in KY). He has 6 months to change the situation but how?

 

 

Well, I think it was due to the fact that we would not handle any snakes or drink turpentine when he visited some of the churches in the region. This means his faith is lacking - so that is why we did not vote for him.

[Good Old Neon]

Hillary Clinton

[lamradio]

Dude, that's an awesome avatar.

 

Carry on.

[Elixir Sue]

OK you guys (and gals) we've mentioned this a little bit here, but now it seems undeniable - Barack has a pretty severe Appalachian Problem. This seems worthy of discussion to me.

from Talking Points Memo:

 

Upcountry

05.13.08 -- 10:00PM

By Josh Marshall

 

If the exit polls (and the pre-election polls) are accurate, Hillary Clinton is set to win West Virginia by roughly a 2 to 1 margin over Barack Obama. Oregon, next Tuesday, favors Obama. But Kentucky, which votes the same day, seems likely to yield a similar margin for Sen. Clinton. So what is it about these two states that makes them so favorable to Hillary Clinton?

 

There's been a lot of talk in this campaign about Barack Obama's problem with working class white voters or rural voters. But these claims are both inaccurate because they are incomplete. You can look at states like Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and other states and see the different numbers and they are all explained by one basic fact. Obama's problem isn't with white working class voters or rural voters. It's Appalachia. That explains why Obama had a difficult time in Ohio and Pennsylvania and why he's getting crushed in West Virginia and Kentucky.

 

If it were just a matter of rural voters or the white working class, the pattern would show up in other regions. But by and large it does not.

 

In so many words, Pennsylvania and Ohio have big chunks of Appalachia within their borders. But those regions are heavily offset by non-Appalachian sections that are cultural and demographically distinct. West Virginia is 100% Appalachian. If you look at southeastern Ohio or the middle chunk of Pennsylvania, Obama did about the same as he's doing tonight in West Virginia.

 

Below is a map of the Appalachian counties stretching from New York down into Mississippi. Below that is a map of counties that Hillary Clinton has won by more than 65%. As you can see match up quite closely -- the grey gaps are Kentucky and West Virginia which hadn't voted yet.

 

 

So what is it about this region?

 

Let me offer a series of overlapping explanations. First, some basic demographics. It's widely accepted that Hillary Clinton does better with older voters, less educated voters and white voters. These demographics perfectly match West Virginia -- and, more loosely, the entire Appalachian region. A few key points from tonight's exit polls demonstrate the point: 4 out of 10 voters were over 60 years of age. 7 out of 10 lacked a college degree -- the highest proportion of any electorate in the country. And 95% of the electorate was white.

 

Basically you have a state that is made up almost exclusively of Clinton's voters. But there's a deeper historical explanation that we have to apply as well -- one nicely illustrated by the origins of West Virginia itself.

 

During the 18th and 19th centuries, in the middle Atlantic and particularly in the Southern states, there was a long-standing cleavage between the coastal and 'piedmont' regions on the one hand and the upcountry areas to the west on the other. It's really the coastal lowlands and the Appalachian districts. On the other side of the Appalachian mountain range the pattern is flipped, with the Appalachians in the east and the lowlands in the west.

 

These regions were settled disproportionately by Scots-Irish immigrants who pushed into the hill country to the west in part because that's where the affordable land was but also because they wanted to get away from the more stratified and inegalitarian society of the east which was built by English settlers and their African slaves. Crucially, slavery never really took root in these areas. And this is why during the Civil War, Unionism (as in support for the federal union and opposition to the treason of secession) ran strong through the Appalachian upcountry, even into Deep South states like Alabama and Mississippi.

 

As I alluded to earlier, this was the origin of West Virginia, which was originally the westernmost part of Virginia. The anti-slavery, anti-slaveholding upcountry seceded from Virginia to remain in the Union after Virginia seceded from the Union. Each of these regions was fiercely anti-Slavery. And most ended up raising regiments that fought in the Union Army. But they were as anti-slave as they were anti-slavery, both of which they viewed as the linchpins of the aristocratic and inegalitarian society they loathed. It was a society that was both more violent and more self-reliant.

 

This is history. But it shapes the region. It's overwhelmingly white, economically underdeveloped (another legacy of the pre-civil war pattern) and arguably because of that underdevelopment has very low education rates and disproportionately old populations.

 

For all these reasons, if you're familiar with the history, it's really no surprise that Barack Obama would have a very hard time running in this region.

[Guest Jules]

I am now convinced that McCain will be our next President. Sorry folks.