The number of posts I've read apologizing or rationalizing the 20% of WV DEMOCRATS who vote on racial (read "white only" lines) is laughable. As a Black southerner born in North Carolina and having moved to the deep south, marched with Jesse Jackson against the Klan, survived race riots over school integration and butted heads with racism in a lot of places, I have to say that West Virginians make me proud of the Georgia and Alabama whites I live and work with.

Here racism takes a backseat to enlightened self-interest money, jobs, grants, contracts etc.... Those WV Hillbillies are so hateful of a race that poses absolutely no competitive threat to them (at less than 5% of the population), that they will vote against their own interests to justify the racist/xenophobic actions/votes and use the loony-tunes arguments of proven fear-mongers like Hannity, limbaugh etc... to give themselves a moral cover. To hell with them. Keep voting republican. Keep watching gas get higher and your children keep getting left behind. If you're not smart enough to see that you're not better off than you were 7 years ago, maybe you deserve more of the same.

WV and KY Democrats may be the best proof that Darwin was wrong about the survival of the fittest. And for the guy who made a crack about people of the Shenandoah Valley not having Affirmitive Action, I've got news for you. Being born white in America WAS Affirmitive Action for a long time. You were just so used to white privilege that you thought it was divine right.

What sets the Obama campaign apart from any other I've seen is it's relentless drive to stay on message and out of the mud. With the exception of the San Francisco "Bitter" speech, you don't see Obama trip himself with words or trap himself with the ham fisted feints that Hillary uses in attempts to draw him into a battle of aggrieved parties. She thinks she's Rocky duking it out with Apollo Creed. But that's Hollywood fiction. She's not Rocky. She's Goerge Foreman and Barack is Muhammad Ali (an ACTUAL Muslim)He's a boxer, not a slugger and he out points HRC when he can like a smart pugilist, when he can't he covers up. North Carolina was the left hand that Ali stuck in Foreman's mouth as he sprang out of the rope-a-dope. Oregon was the right that knocked Big George out. Or am I the only one who recalls the Rumble in the Jungle?

Why should Obama waste his strength contending for states that he can't win. Pride? Ego? No. Professionalism. Why actively campaign against Hilary"a chicken in every pot" Clinton in Appalachia when it would require his lying and pandering and then disappointing them like everyone else has done for the last 30 years. No Obama's skin color isn't his problem. It's the problem of those Appalachians that can't see past it for their own good.

Hilary is so frustrated that he won't take the bait that she's only half a news cycle from saying "your mama wears army boots".

Good Judgement. Cool under fire. Not the pop quiz format of Debate, But the cool processing of information from sources he has handpicked and trusts. This campaign is a machine. No more yale schooled cowboys, or chicken hawks who use the our military strength as a cure for ED. We are at the mercy of Sheikhs to sell us oil, Chinese to lend us money and homegrown leadership that wants to bring about perpetual war as a growth undustry. This is the time for smart people. For thoughtful persuasive and trithful people. We don't need anymore Sluggers. We need Ali.

If for some reason decades pass before another woman mounts a strong campaign for the White House, Hillary Clinton will be largely responsible for the delay. Why? Because by treating the Democratic Primary as a coronation and not a contest, she was caught with her guard down while the no-name from Chicago emerged from the phone booth with an 'S' on his chest.She has wasted the potential to become a mentor/groomer of talent by burning bridges alienating constituencies. She has become a caricature of a candidate, the once and future Ferraro. Unsupportable in her attempts to portray Obama as unelectable. She mistakenly believed that name recognition and gender( Not to be confused with experience, since she has held elected office for less time than Obama) were an unbeatable combination.

News Flash. The triumph of feminism is that IT IS GOOD TO BE A GIRL IN THIS CENTURY. A girl is more likely to go to college and less likely to be murdered or go to prison than a man and everything between these extremes becomes a matter of choices. I feel better about my daughters' world than mine. Women cannot count on the solidarity of aggrieved parties because the grievances are institutional and not Constitutional as is race. Women are the largest group of voters in the country. Why should we expect them to form into a minority-like bloc? The success of feminism has diluted the power of their vote.

The next Female President will have the IT quality that Obama has. The word has not been defined yet, but it's quintessentially American antecedent is

"cool". Yes, she will be cool. Not Faddish cool, but Competent, confident and easy to understand. Fair, Just, Brave without being masculine. She will ba a lawyer or an executive. She'll be here. American politics is always about the fulfillment of a myth and hers has already been born in Hollywood. We need only wait on the auditions.

Hillary. IF she had only been genuine in the beginning. If she had only acted like a woman with a draft age Daughter during a questionable war and voted No. She would have been practically unopposed and Obama would have been jockeying for a post in her administration.