Letters to the Editor
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A split decision?
The fight has already been called. One fighter just refuses to leave the ring. :)
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Not Only Does She Refuse To Leave The Ring
She won Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky by a combined 95 points.
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Limited Local Media in Appalachian Region
One issue my fellow journalists never seem to recognize - especially those on-line - is the kind of local media that rural voters have access too.
In many rural communities - especially in the southeast and midwest - the main broadcast media are talk radio stations, which are almost universally conservative.
It's no wonder that Obama doesn't play well to voters who have no chance to hear him and are poundind constantly with the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage and the local version of the most extreme forms of bigotry and idiocy.
That won't change int he general election. Obama will be able to counter to a limited degree with local rallies and tv buys on the mid-market stations in the region, but the day to day constant drumbeat of rumor, innuendo and outright lies on conservative talk station will drive many a kitchen and card table conversation.
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two issues after reading joan's propoganda, I mean article
1. The bitch comment. more harping by harpies. :) for all your outrage on comments I saw nothing about mike huckabee joking about people aiming guns at obama at an nra meeting. so yoru false moral outrage is a joke. that's one.
2. "But I can promise people like Bernstein, who think the answer is rushing Hillary Clinton off stage, that they're the ones who are condemning Democrats to the division and bitterness they pretend to want to avoid"
Keep telling yoruself that. Just like the gop, I don't know if you clinton dittoheads actully believe what you say or if your fascist lying propogandists. After many months I think it's the latter
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ahh!
I have been a Salon reader for years now, and I faithfully read the letters every day, and I only started posting about a week ago or so. I've never really felt the need to do it before, b/c someone always beats me to my point and there are a lot of good writers here. But my head keeps exploding over this Hateful and Sexist Obama Supporter idea. I support Obama, and I am tired of being categorized this way. As bloggers you are all so well aware that people like to stir up shit on line.
My circle of friends who support him like to talk about how exciting this all is and all the positive aspects of his possible presidency. A lot of us have never had a real horse in the race (we're in our 30's). We liked Bill Clinton, but want to move on. If Hillary Clinton comes up, it's usually objective discussions as to her motivation behind her actions, b/c we truly want a reason to like the woman, and yes, she pisses us off, just like it cuts the other way. But it ain't sexism. I feel like some of the Clinton supporters whose letters I read here are getting stirred up by the media. As far as the media, from what I can tell, none of my Obama-friends expect the media to give us ANYTHING, and we work around that. If anything, the mainstream media are MOST sympathetic to McCain, and if you lived in America for the last 8 years, you would know exactly what I am talking about (hint: Iraq War Cheerleaders). So we have that in common!
I know practically every word that has come out of Obama's mouth since January and I just can't find the sexism, I really can't. I've NEVER seen any candidate have to walk such a fine line to not piss people off, and I think that might be the reason he can't connect with a lot of people. He's not given a lot of space to do so. I watch his rallies and I see all different kinds of people laughing and smiling and even crying together and it really does give me hope. I know there's been a lot of Clinton bashing going on, and I really don't like it, but I am hoping that her supporters can give those of us a chance who really are good people, and there are a lot of us, a lot more than the people you keep pointing to as a reason not to vote for him.
Turn off the cable news and stop taking all the comments on blogs as the bible. If you want to not support him because of his inexperience or policy differences, that is valid, and something that I have to ponder each day, but this election is so much more complex and fascinating than to chalk anybody's defeat up to sexism, racism, etc.
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This is close to the end so it probably won't be read
I'm not a raving conspiracy theorist. I'm also not an "Obamabot." What I see happening to the party, evidenced by posts here, the full page ad in the New York Times, the PACs of former Clinton voters springing up to oppose Obama in the general, the "selective counting" of some votes in FL and MI but not others, and the press releases from the Clinton campaign explicitly blaming sexism for her performance, is a rift.
As I've said in many other posts, the candidates can choose to either address this rift by speaking about unity (even as both continue to run for the nomination, as they are entitled to do) and highlighting the Dems differences with McCain or to stoke those fires of resentment, appeal to voters' baser instincts, and further widen the split.
I think what's occurring is self evident.
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@guijackb
If everybody who isn't voting for Obama is a racist, that doesn't bode well for the general election. They will not vote for Obama over McCain. I do not look forward to hearing postmortems in November talking about whey Obama lost because of his race. Perhaps it would be wiser to focus on other reasons that Obama is losing, so that he can addresss them and win over voters who are reluctant to vote for him.
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When Obama Loses
It won't be race, it will be Hillary's fault.
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Or, It Could Be ...
This attitude that Obama will be able to win without the support of so many people that are outside of the scope of his current constituency is amazing and from many posts I have seen over the past five or so months is not uncommon.
-- James65
Because I'm an Obama supporter, I've been slow on the uptake on this, but I suspect that there are a number of "pro-Obama" GOP ops posting here -- perhaps as many if not more -- to try and stir up as much shit as possible, just as there are "pro-Clinton" ops. It's a war of ideas, and online, your enemy can come in the appearance of your friend very easily.
Face it, getting Dems all pissed off at each other to screw up the election is ALL THEY GOT this November. There's no other there, there, Gertrude.