Free Republic

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...