"I know I have to severely knock on wood for saying so, but why exactly does Obama need 60 million votes at all when he'll have the other two hundred and forty million... -- ByrdMarshall"

How many times were you left behind a grade or two?

There aren't 300 million votes to be had in this country, unless Obama plans to get them the Chicago way. Moreover, the idea that Obama will get 80% of the popular vote -- that's right (240/(240+60)) = 0.8 -- deserves some kind of Gold Star in Stupidity Award.

This sounds like a campaign piece for Hillary. Since when does a small group of working class voters becme more important than the majority of the Democrats base. West Virgina is a small portion of the Big picture. It is being over played.

Look Obama has gotten the majority of the popular vote in the primaries. He's gotten the majority of white voters, and he should get the majority who voted for Hillary in the general election. Besides he will brig in independents and republicans.

Obama is building a new base of voters within the party.

The poll data average reported here is incorrect. The latest poll data average shows Obama +9 against McCain, and Hillary a +2 against McCain.

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As a former member of rural, off the beaten path, small town midwestern America- I can say that there is a grain of truth in the generalizations. Ignorance is considered a virtue and education is considered "getting too big a head". Sexism and racism are alive and well. Being different in any way is a reason to be scorned, outcast, or hunted. The ugliest things about America reside in these nooks and crannies, while the rest of the world (and media) ignore it all until it makes a good show for Oprah or a story for the NYT. Cleaning up the image of rural America, enshrining it, making it seem something it is not- is not good for politics or our collective culture. Rural America has been dying and struggling for the past 40 years. It isn't getting better, that much is true. Maybe SALON needs to do more stories about the real rural America, and quite pondering the images of imagination.

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.

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.

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. ;)

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.