Posted on 06/14/2008 11:10:07 AM PDT by JavaJumpy
CHESTER, Ill. -- The rookie state senator from Chicago had driven 340 miles to explore southern Illinois, but Barb Brown could muster only 20 Democrats in this small town on the Mississippi River to have breakfast with him. She asked her niece and sister-in-law, who were helping in the kitchen, to come out to pad the audience.
"We tried to convince people that they needed to come out and meet with this senator from Chicago, who on top of everything else was African American," Brown, a circuit court clerk, said of the 1997 gathering. "We had people looking at us strangely."
As Sen. Barack Obama emerges as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, worries linger in his party over whether he can improve on his poor showing among many rural and blue-collar voters in the primaries. Clues to that question lie here, outside metro Chicago, in a 400-mile-long swath of corn and soybean fields that, in the coal country of its southern reaches, shares more with Kentucky and Missouri than Chicago.
Obama's courting of the region began soon after he was elected to the legislature in 1996. Southern Illinoisans interpreted the visits as a sign that he was already thinking about a future run for statewide office, but they also served as a self-education in the middle-American milieu that his Kansan grandparents hailed from but that he knew little of, having grown up in Hawaii and Indonesia and spent his adult years in big cities. Before mostly white audiences, Obama would joke about his name -- rhyming it with "yo mama" -- and test out his message about getting past divisions to solve problems.
Obama's advisers have pointed to his success in winning over "downstate" Illinoisans as a sign of his electability, but political analysts question the claim.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The title should have shown as:
In Illinois, Clues to Obama’s Electability
Courting of Rural Areas Began in ‘96
“who on top of everything else was African American,”
Wow, impressive.
If that didn’t qualify him for President, then I don’t know what would.
Johnny may actually give Barry a run for his money downstate.
I’m assuming he was elected as a (state) senator in ‘96. Breakfast with the senator? Right? So I’m confused from reading farther down that this visit as state senator is taken as a sign of a future run for state-wide office. And it’s still his first term as U.S. senator.
“I’m assuming he was elected as a (state) senator in ‘96. Breakfast with the senator? Right? So I’m confused from reading farther down that this visit as state senator is taken as a sign of a future run for state-wide office. And it’s still his first term as U.S. senator.”
That’s the way the article read - good catch. What kind of coffee are you drinking? I need to upgrade mine!
Gee, it seems as if all the Brit royal gals are fat hags.
When he was running for Senator, the first thing I noticed was that his name rhymed with Osama.
Barack Hussein Obama’s problem with “downstate” voters in Illinois isn’t because of his race(s), it’s because he’s an eltist communist snob.
Chester IL - Pop 8,000+ (only 20 people could be mustered up out 8,000)
Chester IL - Home of Popeye (The writer/creator)
Chester IL - Home of Menard Prison
Chester IL - Home of Gilster Mary Lee
http://www.gilstermarylee.com/
Out of 8,000 - Chester only has about 50 blacks living in it. (about 25%+ are Menard prison relatives)
The town leaders refuse expansion or growth because they are afraid it will attract the wrong race of people to move into the town.
Nearly all the corn grown in the area is sent to Gilster Mary Lee. They have about 14 (large and small) factories in the area. One factory produces almost “all” the “Popcorn” consumed in the USA.
http://www.gilstermarylee.com/gilster/products.htm
“who on top of everything else was African American,”
On top of *what else* is my question.
Besides being born with extra melanin, what are his other “accomplishments”?
*Lots* of people have extra melanin but I don’t see them putting that on a presidential resume’.
[I know...rhetorical questions].....:)
I read that thread to but it looks as if you misplaced your comment.
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