But when polls show that 22% of all voters in West Virginia openly admitted that race played a role in their decision, and the vast majority of those voters went to Hillary, doesn't that suggest that Obama making regular visits to the Appalachian states won't help him?

Although Ms. Davis's overall thesis is accurate--Obama, and the Democratic Party, should court rural voters for November--I'm afraid she ignores the demographics of Senator Obama's home state. One must recall Obama's senate campaign in 2004 when his campaign successfully courted 'downstate' Illinoisans. And, although Obama was handed an easy victory in the general election, his challenging primary victory months earlier was a result of his downstate support.

As a resident of a deep southern Illinois, where antagonism towards Chicago is polite conversation, Obama's superb oratory skills erased negative suspicions about a black man from the south side of Chicago. The beginning of the following year-old article summarizes Obama's strategy with rural America best:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/05/07/070507fa_fact_macfarquhar?currentPage=all

It is still too early to evaluate Obama's success with rural Americans. Yet, it appears as if the Obama campaign believes the key to the White House does include rural voters--west of the Mississippi. Obama's popularity among Midwestern and western rural Democratic voters in Iowa, Kansas, Idaho and others is unquestionable.

Well what would you call someone who has voted Republican - with the result that their jobs have been exported and their kids have gotten shot at, and yet still wants to vote McCain?

We can chase the blue collar working class vote. We can chase the uneducated vote. But the stupid vote? That we will never get.

I was raised in western North Carolina, in one of the ten poorest counties in the country. I went in the army, served for a decade, got out, went back to school in the pacific Northwest, got a grad degree under a competitive national fellowship, got into high tech, then management, then changed careers again, went overseas and worked in some of those places you've been reading about in the news. Came back to the states last year, to north Georgia. Raised in Appalachia, now returned. Though of course, it's different: western North Carolina is not the same as north Georgia, which is also different from east Tennessee and northeastern Alabama, though we're less than a day's drive apart.

Funny thing, how I see a lot of Obama stickers around here. I see them on cars that have confederate flag license plates. Obama carried Goergia in the primary, and not only among blacks. There are a lot of people here who are interested in him, think he's smart and capable, respond to his charisma, and are thinking about voting for him in the national elections.

Know what, though? Not all of them follow politics like we wonks do. Some, it's because they work three jobs or their time is soaked up raising their families and trying to get by. Some have long ago decided that politicians are all thieves and that there's no difference (though they still vote, when the day comes around). Some have advanced degrees in things that have nothing to do with politics, and their lives are filled with things like, say, trying to save the eastern Hemlock from the wooly adelgid.

What all have in common is that they live here. Some still have strong family roots here; others are attached to the beauty of the land, and can't bear to leave or stay gone. They may make redneck jokes or ironic mentions of the 'war of northern aggression'; this is ironic self-regard, at least when there are no outsiders around.

What they are prickly about is their representation and how other people see them. The distortions, misrepresentations, and one-to-many fallacies are relentless. Inbred, dirt-eating, cousin-marrying, nigra-lynching, backwoods, shoeless, banjo-playing squeal-like-a-pig underclass stupid hillbilly rednecks. Or victims, in the most charitable formulation. And they're automatic, too.

A none-too-current example: The media shows up to follow an FBI manhunt for Eric Rudolph in WNC, starts in with their shit about the backwoods rural mountain folk, and everyone 'knows' what they're talking about. And Rudolph gets away, because people would rather cut off their left hand than help a bunch of government outsiders and condescending blowdrieds. Then, of course, the story is about how they were helping him because they, too, wanted to blow up abortion clinics. Endless loop.

That's what we're seeing here too. I don't doubt that Obama sees beyond this dynamic; he made reference to it in his famous race speech.

But among you supporters who don't know what you're talking about, who were once in Appalachia and talked to some people and now think you can speak in broad sweeps about ths area, or who somehow think your message of hope and unity is advanced by an attitude of, hey, fuck Appalachia, or the hillbillies better get with the program or they'll be left behind, or, no matter what they say it all comes down to the fact that they're a bunch of racist scumbags, so who cares about them ... you are tools of the Republican machine, and your words will be used to divide the country come November, and while you will all squeal about how the hillbillies, or the veterans, or the evangelicals who seemed to be leaning Dem, or whomever stabbed you in the back and were too stupid to elect Obama, you will have no one but yourself to blame.

Now pull your head out of your ass, stop congratulating yourselves on how cool you and your candidate are, stop demonizing everyone who doesn't agree with you or hasn't made up their mind yet, and do some real political work. Listen to people, talk to them about their lives, and persuade them. Engage respectfully, and at least for your own interests put aside all your bullshit stereotypes until the election is over.

Nice try at reframing your argument but your original meaning was pretty clear. Sorry...

It's interesting to me that one of the most literate, tolerant, and far-ranging news Web sites has attempted to reduce Obama's "Appalachian problem" to the "h" word: hillbillies. Isn't Salon usually the site that decries such broad-brushed slander? Apparently unbeknownst to the Hillary-loving gobs who run this site are the dozens of pro-environment, sustainable development groups that could form the backbone of a pro-Obama movement in West Virginia (and Kentucky, too). Outraged that coal companies have stolen their land, raped the beautiful and bountiful scenery (particularly through the earth-destroying mining practices known as "mountaintop removal"), and bankrupted the region's future in the name of providing cheap energy for people in other states, these groups have formed to fight corrupt and coal-financed politicians at the local, state, and federal levels (including--surprise--Bush Administration employees at multiple agencies who have ditched enviro regulations in the name of coal-company profits). Looks like a great political opportunity for the leading Democratic presidential candidate, right? Nope.

Here's the problem: Obama loves coal. His home state, Illinois, has millions of tons of it. Illinois is one of the leaders in pushing for the Holy Grail known as "coal gasification," a technology so expensive to develop and so slow-moving that even the federal Department of Energy has had to abandon it. No matter: Obama's a big fan of the idea, as are coal companies--the nemeses of poor, Earth-loving West Virginians. Venture capitalists and even a major foundation are in on this. Obama has accepted coal-company contributions in the past and likely will in the coming general election. He can spout on about how he loves wind and solar, but coal is really the money where his mouth is.

West Virginia groups don't feel they can trust him--or vote for him--for this reason. And who can blame them? Until Obama can come up with a strong, comprehensive--and humane--energy plan, he'll have no credibility with them and others like them across the country. I write this as a one-time Obama voter (in the Maryland primary) and as one who will support him in November. There's more to West Virginia than stereotypes, privileged Salon editors, writers--and, alas, readers.