Posted on 05/20/2008 11:36:21 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
It isn’t just West Virginia. We saw those same lopsided majorities for Clinton -- three and four to one -- in southwestern Pennsylvania, western counties in Virginia, and eastern Tennessee. We’ll see more such blowouts in Kentucky’s eastern counties on May 20.
Who are these people and what are they thinking?
They live along a geographical belt of the country roughly corresponding to the Appalachian Mountains stretching from upstate New York to Alabama. Many call the area Appalachia and describe the people as “backward”. Such characterizations are both unfair and inaccurate.
These people have been there a long time. Migration is outward not inward. Overwhelmingly they are Protestant and largely of Scots-Irish descent. Many came from Northern Ireland when the British Parliament banned Presbyterians from holding office; others emigrated from the Scottish Highlands following the bloody defeat of “Bonny Prince Charlie” in 1745.
Though most of these people are geographically “Southern” they disproportionally enlisted in the Union Army because they detested slavery. West Virginia seceded from Virginia in 1861 over that very issue.
It would be fair to say -- as Barack Obama did -- that these people “cling” to God, guns, and patriotism, but not because they’re “bitter”, but because they believe that these are things central to the values that define their lives.
Accordingly they make fine soldiers. Characteristically America’s greatest hero in World War I was an uneducated sharp shooting woodsman from the Tennessee hills named Alvin York. In the age of the all volunteer military enlistment rates in Appalachia lead the nation. Given this reverence for things military West Virginians could not forget Al Gore’s invention of combat experience in Vietnam or forgive John Kerry’s slander of his fellow soldiers as “war criminals”.
In the wake of Obama’s wipeout in West Virginia the liberal media has not actually used the term “racist hillbillys” but clearly that’s what they mean as they try to explain away this “little setback”.
While race was certainly a factor in West Virginia it was not the decisive issue in 2008 anymore than religion was in 1960.
In each of these seminal primaries -- half a century apart -- the decisive issue was Patriotism with a capital P.
Those of us with distant memories of on the ground realities from the West Virginia of 1960 recall conversations in American Legion halls, VFW posts, and other places where gritty coal miners and hardscrabble farmers gathered to talk about who should succeed Dwight Eisenhower as leader of the Free World.
West Virginians decided they could forgive Jack Kennedy’s Catholicism and forget he went to Harvard because what sealed the deal was his undeniable heroism in saving his men in the South Pacific after the sinking of PT-109.
No doubt in countless attics in Wheeling and Charleston you can find yellowing political flyers with a picture of an emaciated young Lieutenant at the helm of his boat. Probably in the same dusty box are the pins and other memorabilia -- distributed by the thousands -- that reminded West Virginians that the handsome but still shy candidate before them had gone in harms way with their own sons, and brothers, and fathers.
In 2008 West Virginians used the same scale to measure Barack Obama and they found him seriously wanting by a stunning 69 to 28 percent margin.
But wait. You’re asking “How could Obama win so big in a 94 % white state (Iowa) and then lose so bad in another 94 % white state (West Virginia) unless the reason is racism?
The answer is that Iowans -- unlike West Virginians -- didn’t know things about Barack Obama that raise the gravest doubts about his patriotism. Iowans never heard of Reverend Wright; they didn’t know about Obama’s “friendly relations” with Bill Ayers; they weren’t aware that Michelle Obama had never been “proud of her country”; they hadn’t noticed the missing flag pin; and most damning of all they never heard the audiotape of Obama speaking to liberal fat cats in San Francisco in tones of obvious condescension describing rural lower income whites in a manner that made them seem ignorant, pathetic, and of course “bitter”.
These recently revealed pieces of the “Who Is Barack Obama” puzzle will haunt him from now through November as they very well should.
This was more a vote against Obambi than a vote for Hitlery.
We have friends like this. They always vote Democrat. But, they do not like black people. They absolutely will not vote for Obama under any circumstances. In a way, it's good that McCain is the GOP nominee, because they will vote for him, but would probably stay home if a strong conservative was running. I'm starting to smell a McCain landslide
...”These recently revealed pieces of the “Who Is Barack Obama” puzzle will haunt him from now through November as they very well should.”...
While it pains me greatly to say so, it seems we owe some thanks to the Clintons for staying in the race long enough that this stuff has come out. There is a reason why the leftist MSM and other Obama shills have been after Clinton to fold her tent and quit. That is because the longer she stays in, the more America learns about the dangerous charlatan Obama. The Clintons, not the so-called “GOP attack machine” are the inventors and masters of negative, down and dirty campaigning. She is staying in the hope her team will find something on Obama that the MSM cannot cover up.
I’m looking forward to the Denver catfight. Its gonna be good.
I think that McCain has this wrapped up as long as he is still breathing. He definitely beats the snot out of both of them on his patriotism is he keeps using a picture showing Obama holding his hands during the Pledge with the big American flag in the background. He is such a WPOS. As far as a landslide goes, while it would be nice for the coat tail effect, I’m not sure I see it yet. One can only dream.
Thank Rush and operation chaos.
You’re correct, too. Rush helped a lot, but I still think the Clintons are dragging this out for a reason.
Fauxbama is fundamentall unelectable in a general election, that’s the simple undeniable truth. It has nothing to do with his race, it has to do with the fact he’s a bush league marxist shrub.
The Clinton’s spending their “own” money to the tune of $30M would seem to indicate that this Drat nomination is far from over. Like Godzilla vs Mothra, Obama vs HillBill.
Awesome video:
The same kind of terrorists who support Obama did this:
http://www.frugalsites.net/911/attack/
Never apologize for them.
Never appease them.
Never forget.
So true! People in the MSM keep focusing upon his race as in “will enough whites vote for a black man?”
Nearly everyone is missing the “elephant in the room” which is that OBAMA’S RACE IS THE ONLY THING THAT HAS BROUGHT HIM THIS FAR!!!
Without his skin color he’s just Dennis Kookcinich with a better scriptwriter.
Without his skin color Obama never could have come this far because he is a far-left socialist appeasement weasel.
When he loses in Nov. people will attribute it to his race without noting that a WHITE candidate who was the most far-left major party candidate in our history would not even have done as well.
Dude, stop spamming FR with that post. It’s fricking annoying.
I’m getting sick of the media portraying people from Kentucky as racist hicks because they didn’t vote for Obama.
The people of Kentucky can smell an arrogant elitist for miles. Obama didn’t try to campaign in the heart of the state and only sent his witchy wife to Lexington. Hillary at least comes over as someone the people can relate to. Obama acts like he’s too good to to come here.
Speaking as a member of the Southwest Pa Appalcian contingent of bitter Americans I can tell you that there are a lot of Democrats around here, but that is in name only. They are much more conservative than a lot of the Republicans in Congress right now, I can tell you that. The issue that turned them against Obama from the beginning is guns. If you even think about messing with people’s gun rights around here, you aren’t going to get their vote, period...
One thing he might do to shore this up would be to put Jim Webb on his ticket. He was a highly decorated Viet Nam Marine veteran. Personally, I think the only reason he switched over from Republican to Democrat was that he was recruited to run against Allen. He’s a little nutty, but he’s basically conservative. Interestingly enough, he wrote a book about the people of Appalchia called Born Fighting (The history of the Scotts Irish in America). It’s a great read. Especially the part about the Romans building Hadrian’s Wall because they got sick and tired of fighting the lowland Scotts.
Scots-Irish descent...
Perhaps “McCain” is a good fit?
Patriotism is irrelevant to Oregon voters. They're above that sort of thing.
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