Obama's Red-State Prospects Unclear - Democrat's Support May Have Limits

Washington Post ^ | February 24, 2008 | Alec MacGillis

[ricks_place]

For Democrats desperate to reclaim the White House, the numbers have been tantalizing.

In winning Tuesday's primary in the key swing state of Wisconsin, Sen. Barack Obama drew support from tens of thousands of Republicans and independents. He pulled off the same feat in his landslide victory in the Virginia primary the week before, suggesting he could win the state in November. In South Carolina, he had more votes than the top two Republican contenders put together; in Kansas, his total topped the overall GOP turnout.

All along, Obama has argued that he can redraw the political map for Democrats by turning out unprecedented numbers of young voters and African Americans, and by attracting independents and even Republicans with his message of national reconciliation. But the picture emerging of his appeal in GOP strongholds and in swing states, even as he widens his delegate lead over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), is more complex than his claim to broad popularity in "red state" America would have one believe.

Obama (Ill.) posted big wins over Clinton in caucuses in Plains and Mountain states such as Kansas, Nebraska and Idaho, but Republicans in those states scoff at the suggestion that victories in the small universe of Democrats there translate into strength in November. In Tennessee and Oklahoma, Obama lost by wide margins to Clinton, who lived in nearby Arkansas. He narrowly won the primary in the swing state of Missouri, but did so thanks to the state's solidly Democratic cities, losing its more rural, and more conservative, areas to Clinton.

"If he's the nominee . . . he'll start off with a good urban base, but he'll have to get out and develop these other areas," said former Tennessee governor Ned McWherter, a Democrat and Clinton supporter.

[ricks_place]

"It's pretty laughable that someone with the extremely liberal positions of Barack Obama could actually carry Kansas," he said. "Any interest Barack Obama has from Republicans in Kansas is of a circus nature -- they're curious what the hubbub is all about."

[weegee]

Yes Obama will carry the Red Socialist states. I disregard this partisan propaganda by which the media JOINTLY decided to recast the colors red and blue 2 election cycles ago.

Democrats = Reds.
Republican victories = True Blue.

It was this way until the media decided to start calling the politics of states Red and Blue. Seems to me like something a Red Socialist would do to mask the efforts of the Red Menace. Red Red Red.

Screw the Marxists. I’m not playing their Red/Blue state game. This guy refused to regenerate all of his election maps too.

http://www.uselectionatlas.org/

[Brad from Tennessee]

At one point in 2004 John Kerry said he really didn’t need the South where he wasn’t polling well. He said as long as he won the Blue States and Ohio he could win the election. As it turned out a majority of Ohioans thought Kerry was too liberal. Kerry looks almost moderate compared to Obama.

[F15Eagle]

Think Kerry IS moderate compared to Obama. Of course, that’s easy, with Obama being left of everybody else.

[gusopol3]

Obama’s peaked in the polls. How could he have had any smoother sliding to this point? The question will be whether the turn-out will reflect the assumptions made in constructing the poll samples, which, in my opinion , is why Hillary is running behind her polling.

[DGHoodini]

(Cue Robert Palmer)

“mmmmmm, mmmmmmm, mmmmmmmm yeah, mmmmmmm, mmmmmmm, mmmmmmmm, yeah
It is you, oh yeah, oh yeah
It is you, oh oh, oh yeah
I said Pressure drop, whoa pressure yeah, pressure’s gonna drop on you
I said Pressure drop, whoe pressure yeah, pressure’s gonna drop on you
I said when it drops, you’re gonna feel it, how it’s been doin’ you wrong
I said when it drops, you’re gonna feel it, how it’s been doin’ you wrong
I said Pressure drop, whoa pressure yeah pressure’s gonna drop on you
I said Pressure drop, whoa pressure yeah pressure’s gonna drop on you
It is you, oh yeah,
It is you , oh yeah
mmmmm, nmmmmmmm, mmmmmm, yeah
mmmmm, mmmmmm, mmmmmm yeah...”

[montag813]

Obama has only won because of racist black voters and white men who hate Hillary. Once he gets the nomination, those advantages become liabilities, as the realities of low black populations and a white male GOP opponent work against him.

[Brad from Tennessee]

I think you are right about him peaking. Obama is a product of some great speech writers and coaches. He has stumbled when questioned about specific points in his speeches as though he had been reading a script which he forgot. Hillary has done poorly in the campaign defining herself as a moderate, an image she has taken pains to cultivate since she got in the senate. Instead she has sloganeered like Obama who is much better at at it.

[Brad from Tennessee]

They are both space aliens.

[katiedidit1]

The state of Virginia is going blue. Their state legislature is dem controlled. This happened way before Obama ever became a presidential candidate

[ExTexasRedhead]

Judicial Watch Announces List of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians” for 2007

Washington, DC -Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released its 2007 list of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians.” The list, in alphabetical order, includes:

1. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY): In addition to her long and sordid ethics record, Senator Hillary Clinton took a lot of heat in 2007 - and rightly so - for blocking the release her official White House records. Many suspect these records contain a treasure trove of information related to her role in a number of serious Clinton-era scandals. Moreover, in March 2007, Judicial Watch filed an ethics complaint against Senator Clinton for filing false financial disclosure forms with the U.S. Senate (again). And Hillary’s top campaign contributor, Norman Hsu, was exposed as a felon and a fugitive from justice in 2007. Hsu pleaded guilt to one count of grand theft for defrauding investors as part of a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme.

8. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL): A “Dishonorable Mention” last year, Senator Obama moves onto the “ten most wanted” list in 2007. In 2006, it was discovered that Obama was involved in a suspicious real estate deal with an indicted political fundraiser, Antoin “Tony” Rezko. In 2007, more reports surfaced of deeper and suspicious business and political connections It was reported that just two months after he joined the Senate, Obama purchased $50,0 00 worth of stock in speculative companies whose major investors were his biggest campaign contributors. One of the companies was a biotech concern that benefited from legislation Obama pushed just two weeks after the senator purchased $5,000 of the company’s shares. Obama was also nabbed conducting campaign business in his Senate office, a violation of federal law.

[cookcounty]

"In winning Tuesday's primary in the key swing state of Wisconsin, Sen. Barack Obama drew support from tens of thousands of Republicans "

Here's a Hint for Hillary:

Start claiming the Republicans are trying to sabotage her by voting for Obama, and that thhe fact that she's a million popular votes behind is due to the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy and it's Rove-animated saboteurs.

[toddlintown]

That’s OK. We have “principled” FReepers who will help him along.

[lookout88]

Wait until we get his jihad picture on lawn signs. I am sure that will go over big in Kansas.