AMEN!

I don't want Obama to make nice with the Republicans. I want him to crush the little cockroaches and have them run back to Tom Delay for protection. Oops, I forgot, he's supposed to be bug exterminator.

Thanks, melthough.

Yep, I agree with your analysis about the MoveOn.org ads. A LOT of Eastcoasters and many, many Westcoasters, don't have a clue, unfortunately, how people in OH, IN, KY, and WV actually think, feel, and, not surprisingly, vote.

I live in the heart of the Bible Belt. I know my Gospels, can quote Jesus, been to churches full of Fire and Brimstone, and was raised in a small, hick, Midwestern town, where people's idea of fun is playing baseball with the grandkids, attending the church picnic, going drag-racing along the back country roads, and, for bored horny teenagers, fucking in the cornfields. There are more teenage pregnancies here than in some of the nearby bigger cities two hours away. It's so boring around here, apparently there isn't anything for horny kids to do but fuck.

People in the hills in these areas wouldn't even comprehend the ads posted by MoveOn.org. It would be like watching an alien landing. It's not that anyone would think these ads are distasteful or offensive, or condescending, but they would say "What the hell was that all about?"

Really, the only one I thought that was actually pretty good, was the white dude pick-up driver telling the camera about all the wasted money in Iraq. Now, here in the hills, that's something that people actually ARE talking about. Iraq is on people's minds, because when you live in a county with no jobs, a lot of young men join the military, and a few have come back in body bags. And one in particular, just down the road an hour and half, came back all bones, because he'd been missing since 2004 (Matt Maupin). We've had our share of funerals of young men here. THAT is something that hits home: war.

MoveOn, Clinton, Dean, Obama, Edwards, and the whole gang in the Dem party would do well to link McCain to the war, and surely, as steady and incisive as a laser beam, link the economy to the trillions that will be paid for this assinine war. They would sure make inroads in the hills. Because people around here would love to see some of that money invested in the good 'ol USA (flag-waving cheers).

YOU are so right!!! Yes, hammer, hammer, and hammer some more about McSame, link him with the war, and Bush, and stay on message, that will be some real fighting spirit.

I wish the Dems would convince Hillary to take her fight and her targets to McCain.

Is Barack Obama's volunteers enduring racist taunts.

Read the Washington Post.

Are you going to ask that Hillary publicly denounce this not-so-hidden racism?

These whites in West Virginia know nothing about the Black church or Black American culture. It's not surprising that these voters swallow the lies hook, line, and sinker. IT'S WEST VIRGINIA, folks, home of Robert Byrd (ex-Klansmen). APPALACHIA. Not that there aren't good things about Appalachia, but racism and homophobia aren't part of those good things. I know, I've lived in Appalachia.

Why on Earth would the party fret about losing the racist white vote? That Hillary would celebrate receiving the racist vote, knowing the results of exit polls and the demographics is a little creepy. Besides, if the choice were between a white woman and white man, WV would vote McCain.

I write this without bitterness or rancor, but WV having switched from being a Democratic state in 1988 to a solidly George Bush-loving state (2000, 2004) would never have occurred without the corporate, right-wing media. The media have steadily consolidated rapidly in the last twenty years, and have become almost pro-fascist. There is not a single news program on any major, corporate-owned network that is dedicated to issues of social justice, labor, the working class, or the negative effects of globalization, while we are literally inundated with "business" news programs (stocks) touting the latest falsehoods and glorifications of capitalism. It's mass brain-washing.

Along with this trend is the decline of the percentage of union voters. Many unions are sources of information that members can actually use to fight back, and many have some progressive support and independent newsletters to mail to their members to counter the corporate news cycle. With the loss of unions also went one of the few outlets for alternative sources of news and analysis. What a far cry from the 1920-1950's.

Appalachia is full of racists and homophobes, it's true. It's not elitist to state this simple fact. It doesn't always have to be this way, either. It's not city liberals who keep these people down by pointing out the level of bigotry that infests these areas. Elitism is George Bush and the Republicans who take away their jobs, cut their education subsidies, and ship their boys overseas to die in a war so that oil companies and their cronies can control the region for decades to come. Elitism is "Fuck you, you white trash scum!" as elitism does, and it's the Republicans who have screwed them over, not us in the Democratic Party.

Obama DOES need to campaign in these areas, driving home the fact that it's the Republicans who have screwed these people over. Obama needs to link the war, with the economy, and link both with McCain. That's all he needs to say to these voters.

Keep your target on the Republicans, and don't take any shit.