Free Republic

Virginians will have an important choice to make in Tuesday’s gubernatorial election — and we believe the best choice is Republican Bob McDonnell. *break* On economic development, McDonnell wants to do more to lure businesses to Virginia. *break* McDonnell wants a $1,000 per job tax credit for companies that create at least 50 new jobs — or 25 new jobs in economically distressed areas. That’s the kind of thinking this economically distressed community needs in Richmond. It’s true that the Dan River Region’s leadership has worked hard to attract new jobs in manufacturing, technology, research and retail. But Danville has...

Angered by White House decisions on everything from greenhouse gases to car dealerships, congressional Democrats from rural districts are threatening to revolt against parts of President Barack Obama’s ambitious first-year agenda. “They don’t get rural America,” said Rep. Dennis Cardoza, a Democrat who represents California’s agriculture-rich Central Valley. “They form their views of the world in large cities.” Cardoza’s critique was aimed at Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency, but it echoes complaints rural-district Democrats have about a number of Obama administration decisions. “I wouldn’t say it’s a complete strikeout, but they’ve just got a few more bases to it when it...

GENEVA, NY--As noted in today's Philadelphia Inquirer, "mainstream media have been criticized for celebratory coverage of Obama's rise that has left [many] questions [about the president-elect] largely unanswered." It appears that the "celebratory coverage" has infected the local media as much as the national press.Case in point: President-elect Barack Obama narrowly lost Ontario County, New York, home of the Finger Lakes Times, in the 2008 presidential election. And at least two other counties in the paper's service area (Yates and Wayne), went big for Republican John McCain. So one might think that the reporters and editors of the paper would...

BRINKLEY, Ark. - Wayne Loewer's truck reveals a lot about his life. A 12-gauge shotgun for duck hunting rests on the floorboard. A blue thermal lunch bag containing elk meat is shoved under the seat, left in haste that morning by his teenage son rushing to catch the school bus. Binoculars in the console help Loewer scan his 2,900 acres of rice, soybeans and corn. The dashboard radio is set to classic rock, playing the same Lynyrd Skynyrd tunes from Loewer's high school days, when Brinkley was still a thriving small town with stores and a movie theater. His muddy...

BRINKLEY, Ark. - Wayne Loewer's truck reveals a lot about his life. A 12-gauge shotgun for duck hunting rests on the floorboard. A blue thermal lunch bag containing elk meat is shoved under the seat, left in haste that morning by his teenage son rushing to catch the school bus. Binoculars in the console help Loewer scan his 2,900 acres of rice, soybeans and corn. The dashboard radio is set to classic rock, playing the same Lynyrd Skynyrd tunes from Loewer's high school days, when Brinkley was still a thriving small town with stores and a movie theater. His muddy...

Below, Moe writes on some shocking statements by Barack Obama about "bankrupting the coal industry" in order to address global warming. Obama has it in for another industry: agriculture. Check out these statements from an interview he gave with Time's Joe Klein: As a consequence, our agriculture sector actually is contributing more greenhouse gases than our transportation sector. And in the mean time, it's creating monocultures that are vulnerable to national security threats, are now vulnerable to sky-high food prices or crashes in food prices, huge swings in commodity prices, and are partly responsible for the explosion in our healthcare...

NPR.org, October 23, 2008 · Republican John McCain was doing so poorly among a key voter group during the first three weeks of October, it seemed unlikely he could capture the presidency. That's what a newly released survey indicates. The poll of 841 likely voters in rural counties in battleground states was conducted during a three-week period from October 1-21. Rural voters were instrumental in the election and re-election of President Bush, and big Republican margins in rural areas are considered critical to a John McCain victory next month. The survey had Democrat Barack Obama slightly ahead, 46 to 45...

Supporters wonder why Sen. Obama is not polling higher in farm country By all conventional standards, Sen. John McCain is not courting what some might call the "traditional" farm vote in his race for the presidency--members of those interest groups and trade associations who are strong supporters of commodity price supports. In fact, some might argue that he's gone out of his way to alienate this voting block, with his opposition to subsidies in the farm bill and for ethanol. For example, consider his comments made recently to an invitation-only group at the Harry Truman Library in Independence, Mo. "My...

WASHINGTON -- If you're a Democrat who needs help getting the votes of rural white folks, the go-to guy is David "Mudcat" Saunders, a central-casting political consultant recently made famous by a parade of magazine writers led by The Weekly Standard's Matt Labash. But sometimes you can learn more about a people and their place through literature than by hiring consultants. So I called Ron Rash, poet, author and purebred Appalachian whose newest novel, "Serena," should be at the top of Barack Obama's reading list. Sarah Palin might enjoy it as well. Described by one blurber as "an Appalachian retelling...

Tony Viessman, 74, and Les Spencer, 60, got politically active last year when it occurred to them there must be other lower income, rural, beer-drinking, gun-loving, NASCAR race enthusiasts fed up with business as usual in Washington... "We believe in him. He's the best person for the job," Viessman, a former state trooper from Rolla, said of Obama, who met the pair briefly on that July day in Union, Missouri... Rednecks4obama.com claims more than 800,000 online visits. In Denver, Colorado, Viessman and Spencer drew crowds at the Democratic convention, and at Washington University last Thursday they were two of the...

SAINT LOUIS, Missouri (AFP) - When Barack Obama's campaign bus made a swing through Missouri in July, the unlikeliest of supporters were waiting for him -- or rather two of them, holding the banner: "Rednecks for In backing the first African-American nominee of a major party for the US presidency, the pair are on a grassroots mission to bridge a cultural gap in the United States and help usher their preferred candidate into the White House. Tony Viessman, 74, and Les Spencer, 60, got politically active last year when it occurred to them there must be other lower income, rural,...

‘YOU CAN’T JUDGE A MAN THIS WAY’: That’s what Obama supporter Ruby Hale says she tells people at church in tiny Rowe, Va. “I am convinced he is a Christian.” WHITEWOOD, VA. -- The isolated towns of Virginia's Appalachian coal region are home to strong labor unions and Democratic political machines that date back generations. Yet voters here who eagerly pushed Democrats into the Senate and the governor's office are resisting Barack Obama. Some Americans say Obama's race and uncommon background make them uncomfortable -- here those people include Democratic precinct chairmen and get-out-the-vote workers. Many Americans receive e-mails falsely...

WHITEWOOD, VA. -- The isolated towns of Virginia's Appalachian coal region are home to strong labor unions and Democratic political machines that date back generations. Yet voters here who eagerly pushed Democrats into the Senate and the governor's office are resisting Barack Obama.

Americans disdain snobbery in all its forms except the most popular one: reverse snobbery. Joe Biden would never get up in front of a crowd and suggest that the citizens of Manhattan are morally superior to the residents of Possum Gulch, Ark. But Sarah Palin was happy to tell the Republican National Convention that the very best people come from the country. "We grow good people in our small towns, with honesty, sincerity and dignity," she declared, quoting the late journalist Westbrook Pegler. "They are the ones who do some of the hardest work in America, who grow our food,...

Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain holds a slight edge over Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama among suburban voters, according to a new poll sponsored by Hofstra University to be released Monday. The nationwide poll, conducted for Hofstra's National Center for Suburban Studies, found that 48 percent of suburban voters said they support McCain, compared to 42 percent for Obama. By comparison, the poll found that McCain leads Obama among rural voters, 51 percent to 35 percent, while Obama is ahead in urban areas, 57 percent to 34 percent. The results of the poll are scheduled to be released at...

A new poll of rural voters in battleground states shows John McCain with a 10 point lead over Barack Obama. McCain leads 51-41, has nearly caught up with Obama as a good manager of the economy and has tied his Democratic rival as a change agent. Also, the poll shows McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, is popular with rural voters. The survey was conducted Sept. 16-18 in 13 swing states, such as New Mexico, Colorado and Missouri. If it contains any bad news for McCain, it's that he may lag George W. Bush's 2004 performance in rural areas....

CASTLEWOOD, Va. — Delaware Sen. Joe Biden joined Va. Gov. Tim Kaine and Rep. Rick Boucher as guests of union coal miners at the 13th annual fish fry at the Russell County Fairgrounds on Saturday.

Sen. Barack Obama better not mess with his running mate Joe Biden's guns...or else. In an out-of-nowhere attempt to re-assure a southwestern Virginia labor crowd about gun owners' rights, Biden -- who regularly scores "F" ratings from the National Rifle Association -- warned Obama that if "he tries to fool with my Beretta, he’s got a problem."

Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware sent a stern message to his boss, Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois to keep his hands off Biden's guns.As reported by ABC News and Fox News this afternoon, Biden was trying to reassure rural Virginia voters that they have nothing to fear about losing their Second Amendment rights under an Obama administration.From ABC:"I guarantee you Barack Obama ain't taking my shotguns, so don't buy that malarkey," Biden said Saturday at the United Mine Workers of America's annual fish fry in Castlewood, Virginia. "Don't buy that malarkey. They're going...

Fox News recently picked up on a piece by the National Post’s Jonathan Kay which takes on the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) because one of its columnists, Heather Mallick, recently included incendiary comments in her September 5 column, on CBC's Web site, "A Mighty Wind blows through Republican convention," about Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, contending that Palin has the "toned-down version of the porn actress look," and attacking people in small towns as she charged that Palin "added nothing to the ticket that the Republicans didn't already have sewn up, the white trash vote, the demographic that sullies...

CASTLEWOOD — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s running mate, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, will attend Saturday’s annual fish fry staged on behalf of union coal miners and their families in Castlewood, according to longtime United Mine Workers of America spokesman Sam Church. Biden’s visit could not be immediately confirmed by the Obama-Biden campaign media outlet because Biden’s schedule as of midafternoon Thursday was only posted through Friday.

There's no doubt the upcoming election is having a big impact on people. But places? A local farm market owner is losing business because of a political sign put up by his brother. Sweet corn is their specialty. But lately Bullard's Farm Market is getting some not-so-sweet attention. "Over the Labor Day weekend my brother painted a barn," explained Bullard's Farm Market owner Kevin Bullard. An Obama Barn that is. It's part of a grassroots campaign called "Barns for Obama." Supporters paint an "O" on their barns to show their support.

KANSAS CITY, Missouri-Missouri corn farmer Phil Vogler doesn't need to listen to any more campaign speeches or see more political ads to know who he will support in November's U.S. presidential election. Vogler's vote is going to Republican presidential nominee John McCain. The farmer cites as a key reason for his newly found enthusiasm not McCain's record but his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. "She helps. She is probably more conservative than McCain is," said 38-year-old Vogler, a self-described conservative who farms 2,000 acres in northwest Missouri. "She'll be good on the economy." Only weeks ago, rural America's 60...

Barrack Obama's lipstick on a pig speech yesterday may be his "macaca" moment in more ways than readily meet the eye. Yesterday, Obama made his lipstick/pig speech in the rural southwestern Virginia county of Russell. Shockingly, in 2006, George Allen made his infamous "macaca" comment in the rural southwestern Virginia county of Dickenson. Russell and Dickenson Counties sit side by side. In other words, it is the same patch of dirt. (I'm from there so I can say it.) How can it be that The Chosen One could have been so reckless with his choice of words in the same...

During this US election cycle we are hearing a lot from the pundits and candidates about "heartland voters," and "white working class voters." What they are talking about are rednecks. But in their political correctness, media types cannot bring themselves to utter the word "redneck." So I'll say it for them: redneck-redneck-redneck-redneck. The fact is that we American rednecks embrace the term in a sort of proud defiance. To us, the term redneck indicates a culture we were born in and enjoy. So I find it very interesting that politically correct people have taken it upon themselves to protect us...

Map of the US after the 2004 presidential election shows where the winning votes have to come from. Victory comes from counties and small towns. McCain and Palin have to carry them all plus enough from the cities to reach the tipping point. THAT is why Palin's small-town roots are spot-on. Sorry, no USA Today link accepted but maybe below will help. Prepare to see red. http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/vote2004/countymap.htm

Sarah Palin mania transformed John McCain's presidential campaign as the Republican duo made their first appearances after claiming their party's White House nominations. In a sweep through the swing states of Michigan and Wisconsin, Mr McCain was met by the kind of near-hysterical crowds previously seen only at campaign events for his Democratic rival, Barack Obama. More than 6,000 exultant supporters turned out on Friday night in Sterling Heights, a town in Michigan's Macomb County, home of the Reagan-Democrats, the small town blue collar voters who propelled Ronald Reagan to the White House in the 1980s and hold the key...

DILLONVALE, Ohio -- Barack Obama attended a barbecue and grilled Republicans on the economy yesterday in eastern Ohio, a region cool toward him in the March primary and important to his chances this fall. Obama, spending his third day in the state since Friday, spoke at New Philadelphia yesterday and greeted supporters at a farm in Dillonvale, south of Steubenville on the edge of economically hard-hit Appalachian Ohio. He argued at Kent State University's Tuscarawas campus that Republicans are not discussing the economy at their convention in St. Paul because of how bad it is, and that the GOP and...

Last night in Montgomery, Alabama we did a concert for the Buckmasters organization. As the name implies, Buckmasters promotes hunting and their convention every year is attended by all kinds of people, but the good ol' boys in their pickup trucks with the rifle racks, the big knobby tires and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. racing decals make up a big part of the attendees. The streets of Montgomery were teeming with big guys in camo. They were friendly folks, quick to smile and not afraid to render an opinion on anything from their favorite deer rifle to the current presidential election....

Sen. Barack Obama has added a Lynchburg appearance with Sen. Jim Webb to his pass through Virginia this Wednesday. Webb and Obama will hold a town hall meeting with voters, which will focus on improving the economy and Obama's plans for a tax cut for middle-class families and $4,000 in college tuition tax credits, according to the campaign. The event is free and open to the public. Earlier Wednesday, Obama and former Gov. Mark R. Warner will visit Martinsville. There, they will meet with workers and families who have been affected by what the Obama campaign calls the "failed trade...

RENO, Nev. | Sen. Barack Obama is taking his campaign to the rural backroads that helped him win early primaries but later slipped from his grasp. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee's small town-hall meetings are aimed at showing voters that he understands their economic plight. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama listens to a question at a rally Sunday at a high school in Reno, Nev. Rural voters delivered Nevada delegates to him in January, but abandoned his campaign in later primaries and caucuses. (Associated Press) "This election is about whether or not we are going to sustain and maintain...

The sea of shining, hope-filled faces that routinely flood Barack Obama's rallies would be an alien environment for the grizzled features and tobacco-stained temperament of Dave “Mudcat” Saunders. His preferred habitat is up a tree gunning down deer or on the mud flats — which lent him their name — catching catfish, part of an endless struggle with Appalachian wildlife. Along with his Confederate flag bedspread, the stag heads on his walls, his preference for profanity over punctuation, he would horrify what he calls the “northeastern elitist, Metropolitan Opera wing of the Democrats”. But, as one of the party's few...

BELLEVILLE, Pa. -- The folks in this picturesque mountain community with red barns and Amish buggies have been voting overwhelmingly Republican in national elections for decades. But tough economic times in Mifflin County and in rural areas all around the country have created possible openings for Democrat Barack Obama. President Bush won nearly 70 percent of the county's vote in both 2000 and 2004, but the standard of living here has declined steadily during his administration. The farm equipment factory that employed 500 workers here is closing. So is the milk plant. Farmers are facing skyrocketing feed and fertilizer costs,...

RICHMOND, Va. -- Former Virginia Governor and Democrat Mark Warner has succeeded in a state that has traditionally voted Republican and some are wondering if Barack Obama will be able to do the same. The state's demographics have made it a battleground in the upcoming presidential election. In fact, rural Virginia could make the difference between a Republican or Democrat in the White House. Virginia, however, hasn't voted for a Democratic President since Lyndon Johnson in l964, but Democratic rural strategist Dave "Mudcat" Saunders insists that inside every rural Virginia Republican is a Democrat trying to get out. "The question...

“The Appalachian voting bloc will be critical in the … 2008 presidential election,” former Democratic National Committee executive director Mark Siegel says. Yet his broad statement comes with its own geopolitical caveat: location. “It all depends on what part of Appalachia you are talking about,” says Siegel. “If they live in Pennsylvania and Ohio, then, yes, without a doubt they are the key voters. If they live in West Virginia, then no, because for the Democrats that is not a state that is in play.” Appalachia is not a single state but a region that has its own unique frame...

"Hick." "Hillbilly." "Redneck." "Inbred." "Cracker." "Ridge Runner." I heard and self-effacingly used them all when I left the mountains of Appalachia to attend college in the great metropolis of Williamsburg, Va., in the '80s. I was mercilessly ribbed as a rube when I brought along my sky-blue JCPenney suit—with reversible vest—and my stack of Willie and Waylon albums, and entered a world that was as foreign to me as I must have seemed to my fancy William & Mary roommates from the private schools. Imagine my surprise at their surprise when, thinking nothing of it, I casually mentioned that I...

Go to http://my.barackobama.com/uniteforchange and enter zip code 18702 (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, a city of 50,000 or so that is almost entirely blue collar DEMOCRATIC in terms of its politics). The map shows Unite for Change events within 50 miles. Unite for Change events in Wilkes-Barre: ZERO Unite for Change events in Scranton (90,000 people): ONE In other words, the Obama campaign could not find one single person in DEMOCRATIC Wilkes-Barre who would associate his or her name with this phony smile on top of an empty suit. In nearby Scranton, which also is blue collar Democrat, only one person was willing...

This time it's a duly certified, establishment-vetted, card-carrying member of the Mainstream Media who's been caught, tried and convicted by the always watchful PC Police. This time it was no Howard Stern or Don Imus, or even a football coach lettin' 'er rip at a press conference. This time it was NBC's own, always respectable if not downright pedestrian Andrea Mitchell, aka Mrs. Alan Greenspan. Goodness. What did she do? It seems the lady went and referred to an area of southwestern Virginia as "redneck, sort of bordering-on-Appalachia country." Ooh-wee!The linguistically delicate of southwestern Virginia are still squealing. These easily...

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...

Johnny Telvor was not happy about Barack Obama becoming the Democratic presidential nominee. Not happy at all. Standing outside the sturdy courthouse in the sweltering heat of a West Virginia afternoon in the small town of Williamson, Telvor smoked a cigarette and bluntly gave his opinion of Obama's historic mission to be America's first black president. 'We'll end up slaves. We'll be made slaves just like they was once slaves,' he said. Telvor, a white Democrat who supported Hillary Clinton in West Virginia's primary, said he planned to vote for Republican John McCain in November. 'At least he's an American,'...

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...

WHITESBURG, Ky. -- In analyzing the returns from last week's West Virginia Democratic primary, a phalanx of reporters and commentators have explained Hillary Clinton's landslide victory by pointing out that West Virginians are a special set of Democrats, white, low income and undereducated.

You have GOT to be kidding me. Thats Obama trying to make amends with those bitter, gun clinging, bible thumping, xenophobe rural voters in Watertown, South Dakota. Powerline: Apparently Obama chose to hold his rally in a "livestock arena" where, according to the Times, there were "wood chips and even cow chips scattered on the floor." I assume the Obama campaign chose the venue with the idea that these rustic visuals would enhance his populist credentials, but it would have been easy to find a more comfortable venue--Watertown Stadium, say, or the Watertown Civic Arena. As for the speech itself...

As Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., avoids any real campaigning in West Virginia, the former president of the United States is out there ginning up resentments. Bill Clinton has the right to say whatever he wants, of course. But he's a smart man. Brilliant, even. He can do the math. He must know that it's quite improbable that his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., will be the Democratic presidential nominee. So what purpose does it serve for him to barnstorm a state like West Virginia and tell rural voters that Obama and his elitist political/media cabal allies are mocking Appalachia? He's...

Barack Obama met with reporters Friday in Indianapolis and admitted the obvious: "We've had a rough couple of weeks. I won't deny that." The next couple of weeks will show just how rough. The roiling controversies -- over his remarks about rural voters and his ties to his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. -- have cast new doubts over the Illinois senator's ability to win over white working-class Democrats. Tuesday's two primaries will offer fresh data on his appeal. Sen. Obama is strongly favored in North Carolina, while Indiana is seen as a toss-up. If Hillary Clinton gets...

Apex, N.C. (AP) -- People who suggest Bill Clinton might be hurting his wife's presidential bid more than helping it haven't spent much time in the small towns where he draws adoring crowds of Democrats who wish he could serve a third term. While the former president has angered some blacks with his comments about race, many voters in North Carolina, Indiana and elsewhere express deep affection for him, the last Democrat to occupy the White House in nearly three decades. They often cite him as the main reason for supporting Hillary Rodham Clinton over Barack Obama. Surely in the...

Last week in Terre Haute, Ind., Mr. Obama explained that the people he had in mind “don’t vote on economic issues, because they don’t expect anybody’s going to help them.” He added: “So people end up, you know, voting on issues like guns, and are they going to have the right to bear arms. They vote on issues like gay marriage. And they take refuge in their faith and their community and their families and things they can count on. But they don’t believe they can count on Washington.” This is a remarkably detailed and vivid account of the political...

Well, he's done it again. Barak Obama has inadvertently parted the curtain and allowed us to have a peek behind his carefully crafted stage persona. Yet he even outdid himself this time, when he showed his disdain for people of faith as well as gun owners, deriding both groups as "bitter" while clearly characterizing them as weak and misguided. Starting in the 1960's the Democratic party abandoned its roots as "the party of the working man." It is now run by arrogant elitists like Michel Moore who see people who actually go to church as rubes, and gun owners as...

Perhaps the greatest lesson to be learned by Democrats from this week’s “bitter” brouhaha is that when you get advice about how to hook rural, white, blue-collar voters from a guy named Mudcat, you’d best listen. Dave “Mudcat” Saunders—Democratic strategist, bluegrass enthusiast, and general pied piper of the “Bubba vote,” as he calls it—had a little-noticed fight with liberal bloggers back in June 2007 that perfectly presaged this week’s controversy. “I have bitched and moaned for years about the lack of tolerance in the elitist wing of the Democratic Party, or what I refer to as the ‘Metropolitan Opera Wing.’...

People who cling to guns vote, too By: Roger Simon April 15, 2008 06:57 PM EST Barack Obama thought he was among friends. That was his problem. He is an urban sophisticate, and he was talking to other urban sophisticates. He was in San Francisco last week explaining at a closed-door fundraiser how the rubes of small-town America often do foolish, misguided things when the economy turns bad. “It’s not surprising that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigration sentiment or anti-trade sentiment,” the golden-tongued orator from Illinois...