Is it just me or is this article missing an examination of the most obvious, but perhaps most unpleasant reality about Appalachia?

Appalachians are, on average, much more racist than other groups of Americans.

As a black West Virginian (I was born in Wheeling, and now live in the "capital of Appalacia"--Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) this was made abundantly clear to me from elementary school on. While I have many close friends from my hometown to this day, I would be lying if I said that racism had not been the constant companion of my childhood.

I was first jumped at age 8; this was the same year I was first spat at, and called "the n-word."

The last time I was jumped was my junior year of high school. It was a 12 on 30 (black/white) fight on Halloween, spurred by a kid who came to school dressed as THE STARS AND BARS. That is no exaggeration. Facepaint and clothing. You might remember the "You wear your X, I'll wear mine" t-shirts, spurred by the Malcolm X t-shirts popularized by the Spike Lee film. One of the most popular t-shirts during my adolescence. I was getting into shouting matches with ignorant bigots all the way up to my graduation. And I was the senior class president. And the salutatorian was Indian.

This is all to say that if you'd taken the slightest look at the state on the whole (I grew up in Ohio County, which is as close to a Pittsburgh suburb as you can get) the most obvious explanation for Obama's "failure to connect" is the color of his skin. Plain and simple. Maybe if someone in the media drew West Virginians' attention to the way "voting their skin" diminishes them in the public's eye, they'd take a hard look at their bigotry and what little good it's done our poor state over the years.

Remember: we were the only state to refuse to follow the secession. That should mean something.

This idea that "Southern Pride" is a sense of personal history stretching back before the Civil War must end. You cannot have pride in being an oppressor, in being in support of those who sought to rend our country apart. Most importantly, you can't go forward if you're always looking back.

...to refresh our perspective. "Harlan County, USA" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074605/)is a '72 documentary about a year-long coal miner strike in Western Kentuky. There're a number of revealing and relevant moments in this film. At one point a scab starts jawing at the strikers about a "nigger" in their midst. One of the strikers shoots back at him that "this nigger is a better person than you'll ever be". Scanning this thread there seems to be a pretty hardset belief that "those people" would never vote for a black man. At the very least from this scene in the film we can see that some of "those people" can recognize basic facts about who is on their side.

Secondly, when the striking miners talk about their livelihood, the mine, the safety, the union, etc. -- they exhibit a whole lot of sophistication in the subject. I know I had difficulties following some of the issues that they were discussing...and maybe that would be a good place to start for Obama or anyone else: make sure you understand the concerns underlying their lives and livelihood. Has Obama made an effort to do that? I don't know.

More importantly we need to stop treating politics as nothing but game where we can ignore entire cross-sections of the populace because we can win without them. They are sophisticated enough to see their economic problem -- and to notice that no one gives a shit about them.

"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???"---- L. Michelle

Change is part of Americas identity. Capitalism demands change - adapt or get left behind and die. We change the nations leader every 4 to 8 years by law. There is no denial of the need for change and change is a very old political selling point. Every politician who is not an incumbent runs on change. "Change we can believe in" is repackaged same old, same old.

Sure changing your intentions or priorities or "attitude" can lead to change, but not necessarily, just as talk is cheap without action.

Actions are the only evidence of a true and sensible change in attitude or to put it in biblical terms, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Duh.

"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)."

First off: what in the hell does chauvinism have to do with this? So all Hillary supporters are above the fray when it comes to racism, sexism, and classism? Give me a break! And people are bitter and they DO vote in issues such as guns and religion all the freaking time. If they didn't I highly doubt that the people in WV would have gone for GWB twice. I can guarantee that if the shoe were on the other foot, we would be hearing from Hillary supporters that these states just don't matter- like we are now hearing from them that all the states with caucuses don't matter. You only choose to include everyone when it comes to the numbers if the numbers are in your favor.

I understand why this article was premised on the "hillbilly" vote, but no-one seems to be willing to say what seems to be the fact...whenever Campbell Brown starts talking about "voters without a college education" or "hard working blue collar Amerians" and so on, they're talking about the the class of uneducated American electorate that the Republicans began creating in the 80s by denigrating and decimating what once was the finest system of public education in the world -- ignorant, superstitious, easily led. We are talking about "ignorant" Americans (as opposed to "stupid" Americans) who have been taught to embrace anti-intellectualism merely as a con by...well, certainly not genuine elites, but certainly their manipulative masters.