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?

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.

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?

I moved to West Virgina 35 years ago and immediately fell in love with the place. I have found the people unassuming, generous and friendly--even toward some very strange looking people with long hair and funny accents like ourselves in 1973. It was not uncommon to stop to ask an old couple directions and end up getting invited to a great home cooked meal from the garden and root cellar.

Far from the caricatures that paint the "hillbillies" as unfriendly hicks, the local people taught us how to gather wild food and medicine, how to keep the crows from eating all of the corn in our gardens and how to grow and preserve enough food to make it through the winter. Our next door neighbor, an old man raising two boys by himself, showed me how to keep my old cars on the road by scavenging parts from wrecks .

But, having said all that, I have been exasperated with how West Virginians vote in presidential elections over the years. Carter was the last Democrat they voted for, and probably only because he was from the south. When Al Gore ran in 2000, the national Republicans ran ads saying he would close down the coal mines, take away their guns and force their women to have abortions.

We know the outcome.

When it comes to the Three Gs--God, guns and gays--they will always vote Republican. I'm sorry to dispute what the author says in what appears to be a fair minded article about Appalachia, but an intelligent, articulate Democrat from a northern city (not to mention his skin color) who doesn't embrace the NRA, call abortion murder and advocate discrimination against gays won't carry West Virginia no matter how often he visits the state.

John Edwards is right about two Americas but it's not so much about rich and poor as it is rural and urban. The problems, concerns and issues confronting them and the solutions necessary are so far apart, I can't see rural America ever coming around to supporting a progressive Democrat for president.

I think maybe there is more overt racism here in Appalachia. Let's ask ourselves why is Appalachia so overly racist? Among many other factors, I think it is because poor whites PERCEIVE that they are fighting for scraps against people from other races. Is that really the case? I don't think so. Does it matter? It's what they believe. And that belief has to be addressed.

Somehow we in the Democratic party need to find a way to emphasize that we are for EVERYONE. That there is no difference between the african american in an inner city without heat for the apartment and the poor white person in the trailer park without heat for the trailer. Once we emhasize solutions for everyone, then some of the racial antagonism may go away. And we'll have a better society on so many levels. Will racism totally disappear? Unfortunately, no...it won't. But I think that approach will greatly lessen it's impact. Two disadvantaged groups won't be pitted against one another instead of uniting against corporate interests.

I think it's interesting that towards the end of his life, Martin Luther King was beginning to emphasize the social justice for all in his activism. He saw how it all tied together. Again...as frustrating as it is, we can't move ahead if we don't all move together. And to the people who feel like reaching out is pandering...how do you change peoples minds unless you TALK to them? How do you get someone to vote for your candidate if you don't do them the courtesy of asking for their vote? It doesn't mean you have to change your positions. It doesn't mean you have to "sell-out" what you believe. So many of you support Obama (as I do) in part because you believe he will sit down and talk to other governments regardless of whether or not he agrees with them in totality...and yet you don't want the Democratic party to reach out to Appalachian voters because they may not agree with the Democratic platform in it's entirety? That's quite a disconnect. It comes down to respect. You may not feel they deserve it. Try and dredge some up anyway. A lot of the bluster you hear from mountain people (and listen good here, because I'm giving away some of our inside secrets) really covers up an enormous inferiority complex. Doing them (us) the courtesy of reaching out will have an enormous effect.