West Virginia Democratic Party Chairman Nick Casey had a great line in this Associated Press story on GOP crowing about Appalachia.
But even if Obama does become the Democrats' candidate, the party says he won't write off Appalachia.
"The Republicans under Bush were, unfortunately, able to get a lot of votes up and down the Appalachian spine in 2000 and 2004," West Virginia Democratic Party Chairman Nick Casey said.
Casey believes the Republicans were able to do that by appealing to voters on issues like gun control, which is deeply unpopular throughout Appalachia. He sees the Republicans trying the same strategy this year, noting presumptive Republican nominee John McCain's visit to a St. Albans gun store this month.
But Casey thinks issues like the economy, health care and the war in Iraq are voters' foremost concerns this year.
"I always ask West Virginians if they know anybody who's had their gun taken away, and then I ask if they know anybody who's had their health insurance taken away," Casey said. "Nobody knows anyone who's lost their guns, but everyone knows someone who's lost their health care."
This state was a solid Democratic state until the 2000 race.
By the way, considering how few offices the West Virginia Republicans hold in the state, GOP Chairman Doug McKinney should focus on his inability to lead the Republican Party to victory before he begins to give advice to Sen. Barack Obama where he should and should not campaign. Considering how he threw his own evangelicals under the bus, the state Republican party's financial problems and the McCain camp's inability to find a campaign director for West Virginia, McKinney might want to focus on his own work.
While I'm pointing out people who should focus on their own issues, yet another expert on Appalachian politics disagrees with Daily Kos front pagers and the news media who put all of the emphasis on Obama's trouble in the primary here on racism while overlooking other issues.
After Clinton defeated Obama by huge margins in West Virginia and Kentucky, some political analysts began questioning whether the Illinois senator has an "Appalachian problem."
It's more a case of Democrats in general having an Appalachian problem, argues Philip Ardoin, a political science professor at North Carolina's Appalachian State University.
Even if Clinton wins the nomination, he argues, she'll find it hard to win over voters in the central and southern parts of the region.
"I don't see it being a bigger problem for Obama than for other Democratic candidates," he said. "Any Democrat is going to have a tough time winning West Virginia and Kentucky."
The problem with national Democrats in recent elections since Al Gore in the 2000 race is they have taken the state for granted. The state was one of four that went to President Jimmy Carter in 1980. Instead of coming to the state and campaigning across it talking about real issues of importance, Democratic presidential candidates come in and think they just need to outpander the Republicans on the coal vote to win, an outdated strategy. If your well is polluted because of moutaintop removal runoff and there's not enough distance separating the Democratic candidate from the Republican candidate, you can bet people are going to cling to God because no one else is looking out for them.
What Obama should do is spend some serious time in West Virginia so people become familiar with him. Quit pandering to the coal vote and focus on other issues, such as healthcare. Steal Nick Casey's line about guns and health insurance.
McKinney's advising Obama not to come to West Virginia. I say Obama should and use Ronald Reagan's line that even though West Virginians might not be for him as president, he'll be a president for them.
Maybe that's what McKinney fears. He knows retail politics plays big in West Virginia and Obama's a very persuasive candidate. Obama didn't campaign hard enough in the state personally for the primary. Hopefully that's a mistake he won't make again. |
