Letters to the Editor
Rocky57
Published Letters: 215 Editor's Choice: 4
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Red
[Read the article: Can Barack Obama win West Virginia?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Clinton is the devil I know. She never tried to portray herself as a 'messiah'. So I trust her. Not Obama. He's too slick an operator."
But, his message worked; her's didn't.
Look, when all is said and done, Hillary attempted to triangulate with her War Authorisation vote, nice provisos in the wake of it and criticism, ex post facto, of Bush's management of the War and it didn't work. The history of her primary failure, in 2008, if failure it is to become, starts and ends with a piss poor campaign and, more importantly, that vote.
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Red
[Read the article: Can Barack Obama win West Virginia?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"...'That vote', which the Hard Left -- and you -- cite as the primary reason for her losing, only lost her votes among the Hard Left. The centrist moderates knew from day one that she had to show some kind of support for Bush in those days"
But the core of the Party, the "Hard Left" is the one that votes, out of proportion to their numbers in the General, in the Primary...especially, in Caucus states. They also represent the Party activists and are just as crucially gung-ho, in Primary contests, as the core of the GOP was in theirs right on up to about 1994. The Centrist moderates, despite the best efforts of the Clintons, have never matched that fervor, at the grass roots Dem level.
If she were in an topsy-turvy alternate universe where you could run the General in place of the Primary, she may have had a shot [discounting all those Hillary haters in the GOP and independant ranks, of course] but, of course, this is the real world and she didn't.
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Jackson3500
[Read the article: Can Barack Obama win West Virginia?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"...Why do you think the best way to win over voters in these states is to degrade them? I am sick of being called a racist just because I do not choose to vote for Obama. I voted and supported Harold Ford with my legwork and maxed out my donations. I supported him as the republicans painted his as less than favorable...."
Harold did everything from chawing on a tobacco plug to wearing that stupid Elmer Fudd type cap around Tennessee as if he were hunting for rascally rabbits instead of votes and still got beat by a mediocrity. You can say what you want about Ford's family ties but he was an exceedingly attractive candidate with a centrist message and a command of the issues and he still had to take the pipe, despite debasing himself, from a guy who had no exceeding accomplishments other than he wasn't Harold Ford.
You may be an exemplary of the new South, even the more moderate "upper South" but you're still in the minority [although, I believe, things are getting better].
Ps: Brazile, who has no connection with Obama, never said that Dems didn't need White votes, she said that the Dem base was expanding and that to say that the party was based on "African-americans and pinheads" and, therefore, couldn't win was flat out wrong, on a number of levels. Furthermore, Obama's fifty state strategy was never about excluding anyone, especially red state whites, so if your compatriots are using the dust up over Brazile's comments as a reason not to vote for Obama, I'd tell them to be a bit more honest with themselves as to the rationale for their proposed vote.
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Zombie Warrior to Delores Flower
[Read the article: Can Barack Obama win West Virginia?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"I also enjoy listening to Miles Davis and John Coltrane as well as AC/DC."
You're A-ok in my book: I've been listening to Miles and J.C. since I was about 8 or 9 and sneaking peaks at my uncle's jazz collection.
Flowers (I believe it's Flowers I'm referencing) is implicitly right about some of these so-called Dem posters being ringers from Rushland. I think the Right knows it is in deep trouble and has sent out the minions to cause mischief.
Anyway, welcome to the show.
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Jeffersonian
[Read the article: Racism on the trail]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Lots of folks have pointed out to me that pollong indicates that black America is heavily pro-Obama. This appears race based. They then ask why they shouldn't vote for a white person based on race. I don't know how to answer except by nodding and saying "Vote your conscience then".
Here's the deal, Jeffersonian. Black Americans have proven their bona fides as genoowine electorally racial kumbayaists by voting for whites, in huge numbers if you count bill Clinton's, Al Gore's and John Kerry's vote total breakdowns in 4 straight Presidential elections--and, that's not counting what's come before since 1868 and John Edwards's--and John Kerry's--S.C. primary results against Al Sharpton, in 2004.
So, as to the issue of whether blacks have a deeply engrained aversion to voting for whites for the Presidency, that's pretty much settled and done with.
Voting for a candidate is alot different from voting against a candidate simply because of what that person is, as opposed to what that candidate has done or stands for.
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Susan vs. BryanS
[Read the article: Racism on the trail]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Susan: "Similarly, I think that much of "America" would vote for an African-American candidate -- if the platform warranted -- I'm not sure Obama is that candidate -- too white bread, too privileged. Oddly, I think Obama may be "exceptional" -- that Olympic level athlete or student who makes the path they leave behind "toucgher."
BryanS: (1) "'Too whitebread?' You want a candidate who's drawing substantial support across the racial spectrum and 90% of the black vote to be more black? You think that's the secret to getting 'America' to support him more? The biggest voting block he's had trouble cracking is older poorer rural whites, who -- as we've all seen from the West Virginia primary coverage -- don't seem to be clamoring for a 'blacker' candidate."
Brbssst! There goes my dinner time aperitif all over the computer screen. I suppose Susan would feel better about an African-americans chances for the Presidency in a general election if the ghosts of al sharpton's or Jesse Jackon's candidacies were somehow divined up in time for Nov. 2008.