Posted on 10/17/2012 12:54:41 PM PDT by Maelstorm
Florida's turning away from Obama too - we don't want our cities to be as corrupt and vile as Chicago..
*Deep inhale* - how long have you got?
Don’t worry, I won’t write a book. As the article suggests, there are huge number of WV voters who are Republicans but either don’t know it or refuse to admit it.
They, above most traditional D voters, have been abandoned because they are white, prefer work (when available) to welfare, retain a fiercely independent streak that is mostly a legacy of their Appalachian Scots-Irish heritage but also a reaction to near-constant negative stereotyping by outsiders through the years, and who still have Christianity at or near the center of their lives, especially where families with children are concerned.
Last but not least, they refuse to budge one millimeter when it comes to gun rights and are ever vigilant in detecting threats to those rights and to any politician at any level who gives off the slightest indication of weakness at the knees when it comes to the right to keep and bear arms. Coal gets all the headlines, but WV politicians, whether D or R, display a rather stunning uniformity on gun rights, which tells you all you need to know about its true importance at the ballot box. It famously cost Gore the state in 2000 and with Obama on the ticket no state is more solidly red in 2012 in terms of the presidential contest - just ask the people working at the FBI background check facility in Clarksburg who have been run ragged with the huge increase in gun sales since 2008.
As for the Senate race, this is where the traditional D voters soften quite a bit. The romantic, if naive, notion that ‘Democrats are for the werkin’ man, Republicans for the rich’ is still deeply ingrained, as is the time capsule-worthy view that D means FDR or Truman instead of Obama/Reid/Pelosi. To run as a Democrat is to enjoy a considerable head start even for lowly local offices thanks to the WV version of a political machine.
Manchin is personally likeable (although I hate using that word) and has walked the walk when it comes to protecting WV’s energy interests. As above, he is solid on 2nd Amendment issues. He is a member of WV’s version of the Kennedys with numerous family members holding legislative and statewide offices in the past.
As a DC neophyte he was placed in a no-win situation (aww) on Obamacare but still took the coward’s way out in refusing to state and/or hold a position before voting in favor lest he risk a short stay in office.
His opponent, John Raese, is an uncompromising my-way-or-the-highway business tycoon whose family were/are the royalty of North Central WV through media holdings (they own the local paper [which is still a miserable AP/NY Times reprint rag] and multiple radio stations), aggregates (gravel etc.) and other interests. However, he is a FReeper’s dream come true on Constitutional and economic principles. Ironically, it requires Raese’s level of economic might to fight off the bureaucrats, political hacks, Marxists in environmentalists’ clothing, et al but he is definitely the genuine article. He was/is happy to expend large amounts of his personal fortune (public contributions received/expended are a fraction of Manchin’s) to act as a thorn in the side of Sen Byrd and has pursued the same strategy in the race against Manchin.
Unfortunately, Raese’s JR Ewing persona is ripe for the kind of robber baron caricatures that have failed against Mitt Romney.
Sadly, the polls are about 65 Manchin/25 Raese and the kangaroo court will present its foregone conclusion of a verdict again.
This is very believable. I heard from a relative from up there just yesterday. She had picked up her 8-year-old grandson and he began begging her to vote for Mitt Romney because obama was trying to destroy the country! Poor guy, he was truly scared.
Hopefully Manchin is in the minority forever more
It would be fantastic if WV could finally go all red. The economy would boom, Texas style, and they could finally get their marriage amendment to the PEOPLE to decide.
Right now as it stands there hasn’t been a recent polls. I expect the polls are much closer at this point in both the Senate and Gov race. Raese is a long shot. He came close last time in his best showing but lost it at the end when Manchin realized he was threatened and figured out he’d have to run a race. I’ve met Raese and he really isn’t very personably which hurts him.
The way the GOP deals with WV really never makes sense. The media market is inexpensive, the people are easy to win over. They love guns, God, coal. The GOP could buy the state with what they are investing in more marginal races. Personally I’m not sure they want a John Raese in the Senate. I do think that Jay Rockefeller is going down if we find the right candidate to run against him.
Once Rahalls district falls to the GOP is all she wrote for Democrats in WV. That district has a lot of old blue loyalists but they are slowly shifting. The far left national Democrat party is fueling this shift.
WVA is a solid Red State.
It votes GOP in presidential elections and votes for Democrats on other levels.
This is a Southern state that hasn’t completely left the Democrats behind.
I almost can’t believe they’d replace Jay. It’s time.
Most of my relatives in WV vote Republican - except the union members.
Some actually believe the union will have them fired if they vote anything other than dem.
Do they think there is a camera in the voting both?
Re the “marriage amendment”. Does it mean that you can now legally marry your sister?
OK. Based on an old joke re Clinton’s Arkansas.
“If a man and woman divorce, are they still brother and sister?”
from MadMax, the Real McCoy. Hated Sen. Hatfield.
Nan, might have some information.
“Do they think there is a camera in the voting both?”
I suppose, but who knows! I’ve told them all, no one tells me how to vote.
We were always honest with our boys about the need to limit govt in our lives and what can happen if we don’t.
When they were little, they stood with us in the long lines with us, so they always understood the importance of voting.
They both turned out very conservative and stay informed. The holiday table ALWAYS turns to a political discussion of, “Hey did you hear about....”
Keep praying! I pray daily also, especially for the healing of our nation. We’re in a mess that’s for sure.
John Raese is essentially invisible ... how the heck he expects to get elected without actually campaigning eludes me.
Oh please let this be so!!!!!
ONLY 4 in 10? What type of Ritalin are the other 60 percent on?
Democrats.......
I would like to ask all Freepers to write a personal letter to Joe Manchin urging him to switch to the Republican party and save America. He really is a good man and a conservative who is caught up in the WV Dem machine and thinks he has to stay there to win. I’ve begged him to switch parties. He would actually make a great GOP Senator. Pro-life, pro 2nd amendment, anti-gay marriage. I’ve been disappointed in his behavior in D.C. and told him so. He needs to get out of the snake pit and live according to his religion.
On the others. Our Tea Party has been working to defeat Rahal. We endorse and work for Raese (I find him to be quite personable), who is a true conservative with the smarts to do the job. My personal favorite running is Brian Savilla, who is running for SOS. If he can win (will be hard), he will do amazing things to straighten out the mess in Charleston. He’s a very young man on a mission to break up the “old boy network”. He reminds me of a certain Alaskan.
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