Two-thirds of Hillary Clinton's supporters in Kentucky say they would vote Republican or not vote at all rather than support Barack Obama, exit polls

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

Its not a biograghy, its fiction! It shoulda been called whoa is me.

The word you're looking for is 'woe'.

I had it right, you just didnt get it.

[GaryC 7]

Funny, quite a few states have had the same exit polling data. If even half of the people follow through with their threat it will be a problem for Obama.

[Peikko 1,575]

I have no real idea what makes those who presume themselves to belong inside the restrictions of a political party vote in any particular way. I do find it odd that people who presume themselves to be first and foremost 'democrats' should vote against the party line. However, I suspect that mostly people are simply out to look after their own interests and will vote according to whatever principles inspire them come the presidential election.

[no name 1]

Funny, quite a few states have had the same exit polling data. If even half of the people follow through with their threat it will be a problem for Obama.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

...and now this:

Ken Vogel reports:

Terry McAuliffe said Monday that April was Hillary Clinton’s third best fundraising month.

He’s since revised that upwards, pegging it as her second best month.

“It’s not like me to understate, so I apologize,” McAuliffe told a gaggle of print reporters waiting for Kentucky results at the campaign’s election night headquarters in Louisville.

He wouldn’t put a dollar figure on the month’s total, which the campaign is required to report to the Federal Election Commission before midnight.

“But I was asked by (NBC’s) Norah O’Donnell yesterday if we broke $10 (million) and I was somewhat insulted,” he said.

Did you break $20 million, Politico asked.

McAuliffe arched his eyebrows and shrugged. “I’m not as insulted,” he said.

Politico also asked if the campaign had paid back pollster Mark Penn, who was owed millions at the end of March and has had his role on the campaign scaled back.

“No, I don’t think that’s happened,” McAuliffe said, asserting the question was asked “for the fun of it.”

He added that the campaign will wait until after the last primaries on June 3 to address its debts.

“As many of you know, I’ve been involved in a lot of debt situations with the Clintons for a long time,” he said. “It’s never bothered us before and it won’t bother us in the future.”

He also said Clinton hasn’t loaned her campaign any more money or talked about writing off the $11 million in previous loans as contributions.

“She’s not focused on that.” And he said “We have had no discussions with anybody – the Obama campaign or anybody – about any debt negotiations. I don’t know where some of these stories have come from. I can unequivocally tell you: zero discussions.”

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/050...ion_figure.html

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Interesting....

Why don't those hillbillies like Obama?

Obama's "Appalachian problem" is a symptom of his party's larger "rural problem." But a new poll offers hope for the fall -- provided the Democrats show rural voters some respect.

In analyzing the returns from last week's West Virginia Democratic primary, a phalanx of reporters and commentators have explained Hillary Clinton's landslide victory by pointing out that West Virginians are a special set of Democrats, white, low income and undereducated. Some, like Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo and Jonathan Tilove of the Newhouse papers, have linked the lackluster performance of Barack Obama in West Virginia to a larger Appalachian problem. These writers connect the presumptive nominee's defeat in West Virginia, his previous losses in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and an anticipated poor outing in Tuesday's Kentucky primary, to the historical, geographic and cultural imperatives shared by Appalachian mountain people.

The legions of pseudonym-laden online posters who follow in political punditry's wake are less restrained in describing the shortcomings of Sen. Clinton's Appalachian supporters. They suggest it has to do with her voters being racist, toothless, shoeless, and prone to marrying their cousins. In short, they characterize these "special" Democrats in much the same terms they used in quieter times to describe Republicans.

Mountain people have long been considered exotic. The eminent British historian Sir Arnold Toynbee described the residents of Appalachia in 1947 as "the American counterparts of the latter-day white barbarians of the Old World -- Rifis, Albanians, Kurds, Pathans, and Hairy Ainus." They have also served as a sort of Rorschach test for the rest of America. When the country needs iconic war heroes like Alvin York or Jessica Lynch, mountaineers fill the bill. If, periodically, this rich nation needs people to pity, poverty-stricken hillbillies make excellent poster children. And if backers of the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee need to explain why their preferred candidate is not connecting with downscale, rural voters -- a demographic that was once key to Democratic electoral success -- Appalachia can again answer the call. Obama supporters and members of the media can place the blame for his poor fortunes not on the candidate or his message, but on the moral failings of those benighted mountain people.

However, the unnerving truth for the erstwhile party of Jefferson may be that Appalachia, for all its legend and lore, is not that different politically from the rest of the small-town and rural parts of the country where 60 million of us live. And that could mean trouble for the fall.

....

LBJ came to Martin County just before announcing his War on Poverty in 1964. In 1968, Sen. Robert Kennedy made a fabled tour of small Kentucky coal towns shortly before announcing his own candidacy. In 1988, Jesse Jackson brought out thousands of mountain people for his presidential campaign rally in Hazard. Sen. Paul Wellstone reprised the RFK tour in 1998 while exploring his own presidential prospects. And last year long before the primaries John Edwards brought his "two Americas" tour to the mountains to attempt to engage the press and the greater public in a conversation about income disparity. I know that he was moved and concerned by what he saw in Kentucky, because I was driving him around. I listened to Edwards try to discuss Appalachian poverty with several reporters from the national press. They were far more interested in the size of his house and the price of his haircut.

But lately, other than Edwards, we haven't had many visitors. Maybe the party that once welcomed Appalachian coal miners and hillside farmers has moved on. The national Democratic Party has become younger, richer, hipper and far less interested in preserving an identity forged in the Great Depression. Who really wants a political party full of poor mountaineers? Perhaps, in the minds of some, "Coal Miner's Daughter" has been supplanted by "Deliverance."

That the Democrats have all but abandoned rural America in policy and practice during recent presidential election cycles may have to do with a faulty demographic map -- a lack of awareness of what it really takes to win a presidential election -- or it just may have to do with their candidates' comfort level out beyond the sprawl. Still, it says something about who wins and loses in the fall. Democrats should not be surprised when rural voters drift toward those institutions that stick around, like the churches, which often reinforce socially conservative ideas, and when rural voters prefer those politicians who actually ask for their votes.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/...chia/print.html

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

From dailykos, reproduced without permission:

Counties where Clinton won at least 50% of the vote:

Counties where Clinton won at least 60% of the vote:

Counties where Clinton won at least 70% of the vote:

Edited May 20, 2008 by VJ Troll

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Maybe the Appalachian Mountains make them immune to the effects of Kool-Aid?

[Peikko 1,575]

I think you guys are confused but then again I did put this little gem in the wrong thread to avoid complete confusion.

So 'Dreams from my Father' can safely be dismissed as having nothing to do with the man and his politics? Intersting.

Can you summarize in a sentence or two your conclusions about Barack Obama as a candidate based on your reading his biography?

Yes, he doesn't appear to be able to follow through, quite the problem. As an organizer he didn't really achieve much more than make a lot of friends and after 3 years gave that up in favour of going to Harvard to study law. So, if you want the president to be your friend, he's a great candidate but if you want your president to achieve something he doesn't have a great track record.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Not surprising. This is why Hillary will be the nominee.

As if she would carry KY in November if she were to run. Not a chance. On either count.