I stumbled onto an article by Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic which discussed one of the places in the West Virginia Panhandle, where I live, that I have shopped at: the local Wal-Mart.

Or, as he put it, the "crappiest Wal-Mart in America".  An exerpt:

If you want to see the underside of the unregulated capitalist economy, the people who can't find the non-existent escape ladder from poverty and its pathologies, visit the Martinsburg, West Virginia Wal-Mart. Morbid obesity; spontaneous, public bouts of corporal punishment directed against dirty children; ten-year girls dressed as whores; tattoos running up necks and down legs; smoking like you only see these days in Baku; it's all here.

The Panhandle is considered one of the more liberal places in the Appalachian economy that is West Virginia. But even here we have higher than average unemployment, lower than average annual incomes, a devastated population which, going back to Reagan, was convinced that Republican de-regulation was in everyone's best interest as they all slid further down the slippery slope.

Wal-Mart, being the cheap source for breakable Chinese goods, is the catchall at the bottom that gets most of the clothing, school supply, home appliance and gardening business around here. Goldberg's view of the people he sees here is not unreasonable... in fact it is frighteningly accurate.

Elly and I moved to the Panhandle, and, in particular, to the small college town of Shepherdstown (home of Shepherd University and some of the most expensive houses in the area) to get away from the Hagerstown, MD, area where we work. Shepherdstown was our initial view of the Panhandle... and it was a little off-putting when we drove out of town for shopping... towards Martinsburg about 8 miles away... and found another world. When I got involved with the Obama campaign in the WV Primary (which Hillary Clinton won, as you will recall, by catering to the rifle-toting "bitter" folk of white Appalachia), I became even more aware of this economy that had been kept down by decades of deregulating administrations that removed their opportunities by offering them unkept promises.

In my county, Jefferson County, the major income provider is Horse Racing and Slot Machines in the County Seat at Charles Town. Oh... there is some nearby Government employment (the IRS is in Martinsburg - I used to commute up here from Washington DC when I worked for CSC who had the IRS as a client; Shepherdstown has the Forest Service's main training facility (which is rumored to be THE training facility for the CIA), and a good deal of small, private farms. But the downtowns in Martinsburg, Charles Town and other places nearby are dilapidated and victims of Mall surroundings. Shepherdstown's 2 block downtown has saved itself by becoming a tourist attraction... shops and restaurants, mostly, operating at full tilt for 9 months of the year.

Goldberg looks at the results he sees at the Martinsburg Wal-Mart as the dregs of unregulated capitalism, and I think he is right. Easily one of the best things that could happen with a Democratic Presidency and a stronger Democratic Congress could be a return to the kind of regulation which would have protected us from the oil crisis, the housing/mortgage debacle and the increasing costs of food, clothing and just about everything else we need for basic survival.

And if you are ever in Martinsburg, WV, follow his warning and stay out of Wal-Mart's men's room.

Under The LobsterScope

It was a week ago today that I wondered aloud here at MyDD as to why in the world John McCain was up with ads in West Virginia, spending more than 7 percent of his media buys between the beginning of May and the middle of June in a state George W. Bush carried handily in 2004. Now we know why.

ohn McCain begins the general election season with an eight-point advantage over Barack Obama in West Virginia. The first Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of this general election match-up shows McCain attracting 45% of the vote while Obama earns 37%.

Neither man is terribly popular in the state. McCain earns favorable reviews from 48% and unfavorable ratings from another 48%. The numbers for Obama are 40% favorable and 57% unfavorable. Those figures include 26% with a Very Unfavorable opinion of McCain and 35% with such a negative view of Obama.

Now for as bad as McCain's numbers are in West Virginia, you can see that Barack Obama's numbers there are actually worse. And in elections between the unpopular and the more unpopular, it's generally the merely unpopular that win.

But these numbers suggest that although Obama is comparatively weaker in Appalachia than he is in other corners of the country, McCain isn't really the best person to capitalize on this situation. I think it highly likely that McCain will win West Virginia, as well as states like Kentucky and Tennessee. That said, if the McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee are finding themselves spending money in the fall to ensure that they're winning states like West Virginia, this isn't going to be a terribly close election.

In 2004, the race for the White House in West Virginia wasn't even close, with George W. Bush topping John Kerry by a 56 percent to 43 percent margin. Looking through all of the numbers from 2004, Bush ran stronger in West Virginia than he did in about a third of the other states he carried that year. So why, then, is John McCain dumping money in the state -- particularly at a time when he has been unable to come close to meeting the fundraising machines that are the Obama and Clinton campaigns?

John McCain's campaign is spending $1.135M on ad buys between May 6 and June 16.

Per my media buyer source, here are the states McCain's team is targeting:

Ohio -- $483,184

Pennsylvania -- $228,159

Michigan -- $227,978

Iowa -- $107,940

West Virginia -- $84,275

There's a bit of offense going on there, with McCain spending in Michigan, a state Kerry won with 51 percent of the vote (and thus a state that tends to lean about 3 points more Democratic than the nation as a whole in presidential elections). Pennsylvania, too, is a state in which Kerry bested Bush in 2004, though Pennsylvania is more of a swing state and, as such, McCain's move to advertise there does not come as a terrible surprise.

But West Virginia? McCain is devoting about 7.5 percent -- or about one of every thirteen dollars -- of his total ad buy between the beginning of May and the end of June in West Virginia, a state that wasn't even really competitive in 2004? It sure makes me wonder if the McCain pollsters know something I don't know about the state's willingness to punch the Democratic presidential ballot in 2008...

We have a decision to make as a party. Are we going to worry about the people who say they will refuse to vote for Senator Obama when he is the Nominee, or are we going to move forward.

That's the very real question we are facing here. Watch this video and listen to these people and their reasons on why they would not vote for Senator Obama in the Fall.

These are supposedly 'good Democrats', most of them have Hillary buttons on and have never voted for a Republican.

More below the fold...

{Cross-posted at DailyKos> http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/19/ 10411/6254

We should explain to Russert and Matthews and George and Wolf and Keith and Gloria and David and Alex and Suzanne and Paul and Rachel and Sean and Bill and George and Candy and Tom and Brian and Shepherd and Contessa and Lawrence and Nora and John and Chuck and Ben and Roland and Donna and all of the rest of the people on TV who will be teaching America over the next three days what's happening and what it means! They need to be hearing how we feel about their dismissal of our votes and their misrepresentations about our process (some from Donna Brazile, Howard Dean and Paul Begalia.)  We need to change their ridiculous, stale and uninformed talking heads' talking points.  They reach  some of the voters we need to win. Don't let them turn those voters off with this misinformation campaign. (Their chatter was so out of date last week that nobody even seem to notice the startling data in the exit polls; they just dismissed West Virginians as insignificant, old, undereducated, poor  as though they were dismissable to Democrats and as though that was who the data said were voting! Embarrassing for them and important for the party not to associate with or condone that behavior.

The RULZ of nominations are that as long as there are two or more candidates, the nominee is declared after the official convention vote of the people elligible.

To win, the candidate needs one half, plus one,votes of the delegates credentialled and seated at the convention, cast by secret ballot, reported in live outcry by the state delegation, counted, recorded and confirmed by the Secretary of the Party in the presence of the entire convention delegation. THEN the magic number of majority is applied and the convention knows its' nominee.  If no one reaches the majority, the vote is called on the Second Ballot, and on till somebody reaches the majority vote, counted and confirmed. THEN we have a nominee.
 

Barack Obama, on the verge of his own premature victory celebration, had time to visit Michigan this week -- a state where he voluntarily removed his name from the ballot for political gain in Iowa, then subsequently blocked a re-vote.  But apparently he couldn't squeeze in even one visit to the Bluegrass State in advance of its primary this Tuesday.  Not to worry, though, Obama assured the people of Kentucky from afar that he'd be back before November to win them over.

In lieu of visiting Kentucky to ask voters personally for their support, Obama has spent a fortune in television and radio ads, plus handbills, that play up his Christianity.  He's also found the time to blame a bunch of people, including FOX News and political opponents, for his impending double-digit loss there.  Arriving on the heels of a humiliating 41-point defeat in neighboring West Virginia (where he spent a few hours campaigning), it would be understandable if Obama was feeling a little down about now.


Appalachia, a region rich in battleground electoral votes, is most definitely Clinton Country.  A set of maps courtesy of Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections illustrates Hillary's overwhelming Appalachian advantage.  In case the legend is hard to read, dark blue in the top map shows counties Clinton has won (light blue is Obama). In the bottom map, pink represents Republican-won counties in the general elections of both 2000 and 2004; dark blue is for counties won by Democrats in both years; and those won by Democrats in only one of the two years are light blue.

The Democratic Party should study this data carefully.  Hillary Clinton has the same populist appeal in the region as her husband, who won more than half of these states in 1992 and 1996. Remarkably, even as the mainstream media writes her obituary, in general-election surveys Clinton still out-polls "presumptive nominee" Barack Obama in Pennsylvania and Ohio. And, based on her strong primary performances, Hillary gives the Democrats tangible hope in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee for the first time since 1996.

So...while Barack Obama writes off another swing state, Hillary Clinton continues to solidify her popularity with the people of Appalachia, working like a die-hard Democrat should to build the party's base, going door-to-door stumping for votes in Kentucky.

And the people of Kentucky, like their neighbors in West Virginia, will come out in full force this Tuesday -- ignoring all the grand displays of victory by Obama -- to tell America that they want Hillary Clinton for President.

Word from the Clinton campaign is that Kentuckians are warm and hospitable hosts.  I sure hope Barack Obama has the opportunity in his lifetime to spend a bit of time in Bluegrass Country getting to know them.

Cross posted at texasdarlin and Taylor Marsh


TexasDarlin, all rights reserved
Not affiliated with the Hillary Clinton campaign

Some pundits and political commentators are now suggesting that Obama looked like a 'Sore loser' the other evening after his landslide loss to Hillary in West Virginia.

Many news agencies expected Obama to at least make a short speech to congratulate Hillary and to emphasize the need for unity in the party. Instead he couldn't be bothered, pretending as if West Virginia didn't exist, of which West Virginians responded in kind to his lackluster consideration.

A national leader would have taken to the stage and spoken not only to West Virginia but to the entire nation about unity and vision, instead of pouting in silence over his humiliating loss.

Although it might have been seen as understandable that he downplay the importance of WV in lieu of the lopsided results, he could have taken the free airtime to talk about the upcoming states. Along with his decision to end all debates with Hillary, it almost seems as though Obama is tired of national attention, very strange for someone who wants to run for President.

Will Obama once again act like a 'sore loser' after his trouncing in Kentucky on May 20, and Puerto Rico on June 1? If West Virginia is any indication, then expect Obama to display another round of dismay and treating Kentucky as if it doesn't exist.

Now I have never been a fan of Karl Rove, who is now an analyst for Fox News, but he makes some very credible comments about Barack Obama regarding his weaknesses and character. It is no wonder why superdelegates are still sitting on the fence, many have some serious reservations about Obama.

A Sore Loser

The Democratic Party insiders and mainstream media just screwed up...big time! The two entities joined together and decided the Democratic primary election.

Ignoring the American people and then adding insult to injury, the Democratic party chose to trump the will of the people. Day by day, little by little, the Obama campaign rolled out party insiders/superdelegates to offset any win/votes of the oppositon. The huge win in WV was the final straw for impatient insiders; The endorsement of John Edwards was presented in order to offset the WV win. It's apparent that the Democratic Party is willing to ignore important information from the WV primary; they're also willing to insult the WV people by trumping their votes through important endorsements/superdelegates. The media is more than happy to accommodate the Obama campaign by going along with the program. It looks as if the media is ready to close up shop and declare the race over. It's a sad day in America when The Democratic party brokers an election in the United States of America.

In reference to the media's involvement, this article sums it up pretty well.

Media Said To Have Already Written Off Contest In The Politico, Roger Simon writes, "If a tree falls in the forest when everybody expects it to fall, does it make a sound? Yes, says Hillary Clinton. It makes a deafening roar, says Hillary Clinton. SHE WON THE WEST VIRGINIA PRIMARY BY A KAZILLION PERCENTAGE POINTS TUESDAY NIGHT, AND THAT, SHE SAYS, HAS TO MEAN SOMETHING! Except the press doesn't think so. The press is unimpressed. This may be the first time in election history in which the press has withdrawn from a race before the candidate."