The factory worker in Altoona. The potter and musician in West Virginia. The college student at Virginia Tech. The retired professional couple in western North Carolina. The high tech entrepreneur in Knoxville. The schoolteacher in eastern Kentucky. The African-American attorney in Huntington. The trucker in northern Alabama. The atomic scientist at Oak Ridge.

All of them cousin-humping ignoramuses.

The bigotry is sickening.

If I believed for a second that Obama harbored the same ugliness of spirit in his heart that I am witnessing on this thread, I would not vote for him. I don't believe that he does have this in his heart. I will continue to campaign for him. I will continue to reach out to others in my native Appalachia whether they initially agree with me or not. I will continue to TRY and show how a democratic administration will help them improve their lives. How democratic policies will improve their lives. Trying can't hurt and can only help. But I wish that there were more who could see that the derision accomplishes nothing. I am sadly disillusioned however. I really believed that as Obama supporters we were beyond this sort of thing. (I know... how stupid and idealistic of me) The fact that now I have to look at my neighbors and speak with them and generate enthusiasm for Obama while knowing what so many of his supporters really think of them is a real shot in the arm. So while I'm trying to be part of the solution I'll be carrying your words with me. Then I guess I'll go back to the holler and have some possum pie. Thanks for that.

you're just as elitist as the elitists you hate so strongly. Ie: you are firm in your beliefs and shun all who don't agree with you. So it's OK for you to be firm and elitist in your beliefs, but not for me? what a hypocite.

The derision you see here is not from real Obama supporters, but trolls, clinton supporters and republicans hiding behind their anonymity.

Look at the numerous threads on Dailykos -- which is almost exclusively Obama supporters -- on the same subject.

do you think a truly hateful person could support this candidate?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYmtgO7Hx3I

do you think a truly decent person could support this one?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1Mq8kOXV_E

"Rural America's inclination to vote for warmongering neo-cons who pander to religion and guns and mediocrity is not so much Obama's problem as it is the existential problem of American identity."

I agree.

And people know exactly what Obama means when he says "change".

It's attitude before action.

But there's that other existential problem of American identity: the culture of denial.

Thus, the "Huh, duh...what change???"

When any state chooses to vote in the final five or ten contests of the nomination season, they are doing so knowing full well that the candidates will likely have been settled on long before they head to the polls. Events like "super Tuesday" are explicitly designed to keep the races from running on this far. In most years, we'd be ignoring these states because we'd be down to a single nominee in each party. Is that someone's fault in the Democratic party? I don't think so (unless you count the state Democratic parties - the ones who set the dates for the primary voting in their states)...

Frankly, I don't see these states being politically relevant until they choose to be politically relevant.

In other words, you judge the truth of a matter by testing it. Judging by many of the responses here, Dee Davis hit a vein of deep feeling. Statements such as "too stupid to save" and "outside of the major cities, the population is not educated" shows that untested and chauvinistic attitudes about rural voters lie just under the surface for many urban and suburban Barack Obama supporters (and possibly Obama himself if you believe he revealed his true feelings with comments in my hometown--San Francisco--about "bitter people" who cling to "guns" and religion and hate people who are different).

I read a good sampling of blogs after the West Virginia vote and found the "gun-toting, bible-thumping, redneck, cracker, stupid racist" remarks flying fast and furious. Why bother interviewing voters in the state who backed Hillary Clinton when "everyone knows" the only (or "real") reason they voted for Clinton is because "they" are uneducated or racist or stupid or too old and out-of-touch to know what is good for them?

Time to heal ourselves, Dems, and stop the name-calling and knee-jerking. America needs, more than ever, people who know their way around a backhoe, if only to shovel the manure.

Eric, sorry, I wish that were true but it is not. I've been having these conversations with (some) Obama supporters since January; the F2F versions are identical to what I have seen here, and the online versions could have been generated by the same script.

We've got a problem. Americans are angry, seething even, and as if on cue we form up in a big circle and start shooting.

Little Blue Dot, my wife and I are in the same boat as you, and feeling much the same way. Obama is not the same as his supporters, though. Remember, the alternative is not something the country can afford. That's what you're campaigning for, and against, and it's worth all the effort.

White hard working people, then the Jews and today the hillbillies. Who's next? Why not talk about why so many women aren't voting for Hillary? Because if she got the nomination that would be as much of an issue.

"I don't think it's being racist necessarily, they just don't like black people that well."

That is the quote that runs through my head when I read defences of West Virginia.

You can see where I got it from:

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/05/13/west_virginia/index.html

We have been set up to lash out angrily by this site, at a specific target that then became more generalised. We have been baited advertently or inadvertantly by Salon itself.