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The following diary is photo intensive. The West Virginia Democrats and union leaders took two buses and several vans from Charleston, West Virginia throughout southern West Virginia on a Tour for Change. I drove 6 hours from the Eastern Panhandle on Friday night to join them at 8 a.m. Saturday.
8 a.m. Charleston, opening press conference
Among those there were Governor Joe Manchin, Auditor Glen Gainer, Treasurer John Perdue, Attorney General Darrell McGraw, Sec. of State Nominee Natalie Tennant, Supreme Court Nominee Menis Ketchum, UMWA President Cecil Roberts, WV AFL-CIO President Kenny Perdue, State Party Chairman Nick Casey. Ben Smith from Politico hopped on the bus to cover the tour. He spoke to a lot of people, including Tom Vogel at length who explained the national pundits took the primary results here to be anti-Barack Obama when it really was pro-Hillary Clinton. Since then the state has run a coordinated Campaign for Change to encourage people to vote a straight Democratic ticket, from Barack Obama on down.
10:15 a.m., Boone County Democratic Rally, Danville
It was a crisp autumn day. Mark, one of our Democrats from Danville, said he played football on the field when they were blasting through the rock not far away to build a cut through the hill for the road. It shook the field as they practiced. This was long ago, but out of kindness to him I won't say how long.
At each stop Kenny Perdue handled the introductions and the opening and passed it off to Glen Gainer, who really fired it up for Obama. In West Virginia, even the state auditor and the state treasurer do stemwinder speeches. (Joe Manchin headed from Charleston to Bridge Day to speak to the tens of thousands there.) They'd pass the mike through the ranks. Natalie Tennant, the first and so far only woman selected to be West Virginia University Mountaineer mascot, fired her musket at the close of her speeches when we were outdoors. Talk about Fired up and ready to go. You'd think the musket was rousing, but thenCecil Roberts brought it home. Rousing doesn't quite describe it (Video soon) as he'd talk about how awful the policies of George Bush have been on working people and how Dick Cheney mocked West Virginians as inbreds at a black tie dinner for his millionaire and billionaire friends and how Cheney joked could say that now that he doesn't need the votes of West Virginians for re-election. "That's what Republicans think of you," he said. West Virginians can't punish Dick Cheney, but they can punish John McCain and the other Republicans.
Then he led the crowd through a rousing "George Bush, John McCain, one and the same."
Nick Casey, the state Democratic chairman, would close with how West Virginians were told they were too racist to vote for a black candidate, but he heard the same thing as an Irish Catholic boy growing up that West Virginia was too bigoted to vote for the Catholic John F. Kennedy and West Virginians proved the nation wrong and put Kennedy in the White House.
Then we'd load up and head for the next stop. Someone said we traveled 300 miles, much of it on winding, mountainous roads with numerous switchbacks that made me wonder if large buses should travel on them.
12 p.m. Logan Democratic Rally, Logan Mall
The Logan Mall - a shopping center - is the flattest area of the community because it's a reclaimed stripmine where they've built retail and restaurants.
Logan surprised our people. The longer the people spoke, the more people showed up. And several of our volunteers passed out Obama Biden bumperstickers on the main thoroughfare to cars that would stop and roll down their windows. So then they began passing them lawn signs too. It seemed like more cars took them than didn't.
1:30 p.m., Williamson Democratic Rally, Williamson Fire Hall
There were more than 100 people in the fire hall before we arrived. Ryan was there during the primary and these were strong Hillary Clinton supporters. They've coming home.
You heard of "Yellow Dog Democrats" - I called these "Broken Glass Democrats." They'd crawl across broken glass to vote for the Democrat. This county is very important because they generally vote a straight Democratic ticket.
As Nick Casey and I talked about later on the bus, the McCain campaign (and unfortunately some of our own people here) assumed these folks wouldn't vote for a black candidate. Many of us believe they will. We have faith they're better than that and they don't deserve being taken for granted by anyone, Democrat or Republican. These are good people. These are good Democrats.
The Democratic cheerleaders gave a rousing cheer spelling out "democracy." I don't remember all of it. O was Obama.
3:45 p.m. Welch Democratic Rally, outside the Welch Library
We pulled into Welch and the people were fired up and ready to go before we even got there. Three young teenagers were banging on drums and had a good beat going. McDowell County is about 25 percent African American in a state that has an overall African American population of about 3.5 percent.
People were holding up letters spelling out "We heart Cecil" for Cecil Roberts.
Throughout the trip big, burly men would come up and hug him. They love Cecil Roberts here. Unions for steelworkers, painters, and miners, teachers, government workers, service industry, all represented. But Cecil Roberts has to be one of the most popular figures in the labor movement today.
Our next secretary of state Natalie Tennant.
You don't think Appalachian Americans are ready to vote for a black candidate? I beg to differ.
5:30 p.m. Princeton Democratic Rally, Mercer County Courthouse
I beg to differ, indeed.
7:30 p.m. Beckley Democratic Rally, Beckley Moose Lodge
People with preconceived notions about West Virginia have made a lot of presumptions based off the most negative stereotypes, based off the way people here look. As Tom Vogel explained to Ben Smith, you could find people in any part of the nation to make ignorant comments. I think the videos from northeast Ohio and elsewhere from the Sarah Palin rallies have demonstrated that quite clearly.
John McCain has taken this state for granted. He has one field director here and after stating they were sending Sarah Palin here, she went on a a Blow Off West Virginia Tour to Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Joe Biden is coming here and soon Barack Obama will too.
They want to win our state.
And so do these people.
Yes. We. Can.
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