I am genuinely puzzled at the idea of Obama as a con man or a fraud.

Other charges made against him (inexperience, for instance) are understandable even though I don't agree with the reasoning involved. But I can't really guess what it would mean to look at him and see a fraud.

Is it that he says nice things about change but really intends to make no change at all? Is it that he uses the rhetoric of unifying the country but secretly plans to whip up animosity against the groups he doesn't like? I just don't get it, but it's true I admire him––both his proposals and his ability to analyze things––so that might be clouding things.

Can someone explain it to my Benthead?

The Dem's problem in Appalachia is the same problem they have with "hard working high school educated whites" in the cities. It will take a candidate like Bill Clinton to articulate and channel working class rage against corporate Wall Street and the Republican politicians they own. To me, the closest definition of ignorance is being swayed into voting against your best interests. If a Democrat can make a convincing case against voting for McCain by putting their arguments in pocketbook terms such as "are you better off than you were 8 years ago?", I believe that would be a start. That Democrat would have to downplay the liberal social aspects of his campaign because rural voters will always choose a "Christian" president with an anti-rural agenda over a secular one, no matter what. It's also critical to get the right media spin to avoid being branded as an elitist (try not sound too educated). Unfortunately, progressives will just have to hold their noses while their candidate waves flags and crosses until the election is over, so we can start dealing with real issues. Being right won't do us much good if we lose this one.

Hillary has the lead in the popular vote, as she has recently claimed.

Despite Hillary's lead, people are referring to Obama as the nominee.

Did Katherine Harris get a job with the democrats?

Why democrats lost the last two presidential elections (okay okay, so the 2000 election was stolen)...and all I have to say is look at the vitrol in many of these posts and you have your answer.

Thanks a lot, a**holes.

Why such hatred toward Obama? I can see hating his supporters (of course, if you only focus on the jacka**es), but I am truly trying to understand why people like Lilybean think he's a fraud with no evidence to back this claim up? All this hatred seems irrational to me.

Hillary Clinton herself is widely hated, mostly unfairly. I'm no Hillary Clinton hater, though I sometimes question her policies and campaign methods. Is it possible to be FOR a candidate rather than against his/her opponent? I don't have to hate Hillary Clinton to support Barack Obama.

Lilybean, perhaps to get to know Obama better, read the Turow story published a few years ago that Joan highlighted in a post a few days ago. Maybe you can actually find something more tangible in it to justify your negative feelings toward Obama. ;)

Sorry to be the one to break the news to some of you, but the "hard-working white folks" in West Virginia and KY will not vote for a black man during our lifetime. This is the way is it. Rather, hope for their children and try again in a generation. These floks are not going to change their mind, and no "elitist liberal" is goin gto tell them how to live their lives. They take pride in the their ignorance. They are an old culture that is tied to the land and set in their ways. They will vote for the candidate who uses all the right words about guns, Jesus, kickin' foreigner ass, and abortion, and if you don't believe me, just ask them.

If you want to win rual voters, go West. Obama has already made significant inroads there, and the area is a lot more diverse, particularly in the SouthWest. He can win there. Appalacia is a lost cause. Sorry. I say that not to feel morally superior, but because it's the truth.

Here is the problem: regardless of whether or not Obama is doing a good job of reaching the Appalachian people those Appalachian peoples have a choice to make, him or McCain? That's it. If they choose McCain they are choosing further erosion of our National power and 4 more years of lies, War and poverty, if they choose Obama they choose the prospects of a better day and a stronger Nation. It is their choice. I ask all of you, what has McCain done for these people? What has he said he'll do for these people? If the Appalachian peoples make the wrong choice (again, like they keep doing time and time again) then they have nobody to blame but themselves and they'll get even less sympathy than they're already getting. If these people want to continue voting against their own best interests how are we to stop them? Like it or not Obama is not from West Virginia, Kentucky or any such place, so it should not be a surprise that he isn't exactly great at connecting with people from such places. Obama's message is one of unity, of change, I don't see how it can be his fault that most Appalachian people do not want change (though it would help them) and they're not for unity ('cause then they'd have to shake a black man's hand). What, really, is Obama supposed to do about people like this. Of course Hillary Clinton has no trouble play-acting like she cares about Appalachian peoples because she is without scruples, but as has been made clear by this campaign Obama is not nearly as accomplished a shape-shifter as she is. And no, I do not think he should learn to shape-shift like she does because he is a man of integrity and that integrity really should be enough.