Pelican Parts Forums - What's up with West Virginia?

Pelican Parts Forums (http://forums.pelicanparts.com/)

- Off Topic Discussions (http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/)

- - What's up with West Virginia? (http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/409233-whats-up-west-virginia.html)

What's up with West Virginia?

My apologies to anyone that lives there, but what were they thinking?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080514/ap_on_el_pr/primary_rdp

Quote:

Nearly a quarter of the voters in West Virginia's primary were 60 or older, and a similar share had no education beyond high school, exit polls indicated. More than half were in families with incomes of $50,000 or less, and the former first lady was winning nearly 70 percent of their votes.

So half are old and undereducated, what about the other quarter?

They are not ready for an Obama coronation. Nobody really is - it just came down to them.

They're poor, undereducated and predominantly white. Two thirds of them aren't going to vote for a black man apparently.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dan in Pasadena (Post 3941651)

They're poor, undereducated and predominantly white. Two thirds of them aren't going to vote for a black man apparently.

Democrats are racists? Say it isn't so!:eek:

The cover of the NY Daily News is: HilBilly Win!

And inside across two pages: "Mountain Moma in toothless win!".

Poor, undereducated, and predominantly white? That's the hard-core Republican base, and Rush Limbaugh told them to vote for Hillary http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Rush+Limbaugh+Hillary+support&btnG= Google+Search

love to watch the conceit and contempt spewing from liberals when poor people don't vote the way you tell them to.

Kach if U think everybody is falling over themselves for Obama guess again. Obama is simply not platable to Blue Collar or Lower Middle Class White folk. They view him as being someone who is a Liberal Eliteist without experience, who thinks that knows better than they do They view his message of "Yes we can change" with suspicion. Another HOLLOW PROMISE that is going to tax them even more. The Teddy K endorsement while invaluable to geting the nom is going to be a curse in the general.

Lets just put Obama in the Demagog catagory.

Now you combine those Blue Collar and Lower MC voters with women, Jews, independents, and the Republican base and who does Obama have left to vote for him. Upper Class Liberal Dems, college students and Blacks. The Hispanics are a toss up, which was largily for Hill. McCain on the other hand is not seen as a strictly Republican candidate, he is viewed as being more moderate which will appeal to ALL THOSE SWING VOTERS.

Quote:

Originally Posted by varmint (Post 3941680)

love to watch the conceit and contempt spewing from liberals when poor people don't vote the way you tell them to.

Which is exactly why they don't trust "the little people" to do anything for themselves.

It's all relative. In West Va., I mean.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MRM (Post 3941842)

It's all relative. In West Va., I mean.

Yep, thats what my Uncle says!

An interesting analysis:

Upcountry

05.13.08 -- 10:00PM

By Josh Marshall

If the exit polls (and the pre-election polls) are accurate, Hillary Clinton is set to win West Virginia by roughly a 2 to 1 margin over Barack Obama. Oregon, next Tuesday, favors Obama. But Kentucky, which votes the same day, seems likely to yield a similar margin for Sen. Clinton. So what is it about these two states that makes them so favorable to Hillary Clinton?

There's been a lot of talk in this campaign about Barack Obama's problem with working class white voters or rural voters. But these claims are both inaccurate because they are incomplete. You can look at states like Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and other states and see the different numbers and they are all explained by one basic fact. Obama's problem isn't with white working class voters or rural voters. It's Appalachia. That explains why Obama had a difficult time in Ohio and Pennsylvania and why he's getting crushed in West Virginia and Kentucky.

If it were just a matter of rural voters or the white working class, the pattern would show up in other regions. But by and large it does not.

In so many words, Pennsylvania and Ohio have big chunks of Appalachia within their borders. But those regions are heavily offset by non-Appalachian sections that are cultural and demographically distinct. West Virginia is 100% Appalachian. If you look at southeastern Ohio or the middle chunk of Pennsylvania, Obama did about the same as he's doing tonight in West Virginia.

Below is a map of the Appalachian counties stretching from New York down into Mississippi. Below that is a map of counties that Hillary Clinton has won by more than 65%. As you can see match up quite closely -- the grey gaps are Kentucky and West Virginia which hadn't voted yet.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1210782237.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1210782250.jpg

So what is it about this region?

Let me offer a series of overlapping explanations. First, some basic demographics. It's widely accepted that Hillary Clinton does better with older voters, less educated voters and white voters. These demographics perfectly match West Virginia -- and, more loosely, the entire Appalachian region. A few key points from tonight's exit polls demonstrate the point: 4 out of 10 voters were over 60 years of age. 7 out of 10 lacked a college degree -- the highest proportion of any electorate in the country. And 95% of the electorate was white.

Basically you have a state that is made up almost exclusively of Clinton's voters. But there's a deeper historical explanation that we have to apply as well -- one nicely illustrated by the origins of West Virginia itself.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, in the middle Atlantic and particularly in the Southern states, there was a long-standing cleavage between the coastal and 'piedmont' regions on the one hand and the upcountry areas to the west on the other. It's really the coastal lowlands and the Appalachian districts. On the other side of the Appalachian mountain range the pattern is flipped, with the Appalachians in the east and the lowlands in the west.

These regions were settled disproportionately by Scots-Irish immigrants who pushed into the hill country to the west in part because that's where the affordable land was but also because they wanted to get away from the more stratified and inegalitarian society of the east which was built by English settlers and their African slaves. Crucially, slavery never really took root in these areas. And this is why during the Civil War, Unionism (as in support for the federal union and opposition to the treason of secession) ran strong through the Appalachian upcountry, even into Deep South states like Alabama and Mississippi.

As I alluded to earlier, this was the origin of West Virginia, which was originally the westernmost part of Virginia. The anti-slavery, anti-slaveholding upcountry seceded from Virginia to remain in the Union after Virginia seceded from the Union. Each of these regions was fiercely anti-Slavery. And most ended up raising regiments that fought in the Union Army. But they were as anti-slave as they were anti-slavery, both of which they viewed as the linchpins of the aristocratic and inegalitarian society they loathed. It was a society that was both more violent and more self-reliant.

This is history. But it shapes the region. It's overwhelmingly white, economically underdeveloped (another legacy of the pre-civil war pattern) and arguably because of that underdevelopment has very low education rates and disproportionately old populations.

For all these reasons, if you're familiar with the history, it's really no surprise that Barack Obama would have a very hard time running in this region.

Tim

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dan in Pasadena (Post 3941651)

They're poor, undereducated and predominantly white. Two thirds of them aren't going to vote for a black man apparently.

It couldn't be that they feel he is wholly unqualified for the job, could it?

Quote:

Originally Posted by varmint (Post 3941680)

love to watch the conceit and contempt spewing from liberals when poor people don't vote the way you tell them to.

It is extremely telling. They show what big, fat racists they are themselves when they run their leftist-elitist lips.

"Poor, undereducated, and predominantly white? That's the hard-core Republican base,..."

No that's actually the Democratic base- along with the predominantly black, poor and uneducated. Your obvious contempt for them is evidence of the true lack of compassion espoused by Democrats lately.

Not to mention you apparently have no recollection of Robert Byrd- one of the most powerful and prominent house Democrats in history- who was elected to office year after year by the same people you contemptuously dismiss as republicans.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tchanson (Post 3941855)

An interesting analysis:

Tim

Very interesting indeed! Delaware County up-state NY is as hillbilly as you can get!

Quote:

Originally Posted by tchanson (Post 3941855)

An interesting analysis:

Upcountry
05.13.08 -- 10:00PM
By Josh Marshall

Wow, this is what I had in mind when I asked the original question.

Thanks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by legion (Post 3941749)

Which is exactly why they don't trust "the little people" to do anything for themselves.

Would you trust anyone in that AP video to do anything?

So you lefties can call them all the toothless, inbred, rednecks you want, but it appears that they are still bright enough to see through an America hating, socialist, empty suit, something ya'll haven't accomplished!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shaun 84 Targa (Post 3941889)

Would you trust anyone in that AP video to do anything?

These people you denegrate make up the vast majority of your political party ya dumbazz. The American "peasant class" belongs to the left.

Some of you are unbelievable hypocrites.

A couple of points regarding the demographics of WV. First, income limitations: Income opportunities are limited, hence the 25% @ $50,000 or less. Second age and education: If you are young and educated, and looking at job opportunities, chances are great that a relocation is in the cards for you if you live in WV. So who does that leave? The elderly and the poorly educated, and they generally aren't your top wage earners, so the cycle continues.

The best part is that in politics money talks, so since they are poor, no gov't. help will be forthcoming. It hasn't in the past and it won't in the future, and it doesn't matter which party is in power.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cgarr (Post 3941849)

Yep, thats what my Uncle says!

Don't you mean "uncle-dad"?

Actually, WV has a very interesting history, if you take the time to check it out

Quote:

Originally Posted by tabs (Post 3941686)

I read last night (in Vanity Fair I think) that Obama's own campaign insiders refer to him as "Hopey". I kinda like that.

Hopey.

Hokey? Half Honkey? Hussy?

Vanity Fair. The perfect title for a leftist tome.

Look at us, the effete, so highly intelligent, so well read... and so well groomed. Yes of course we have a Prius. We keep it at our home on the island. We even put an Obama sticker on it. And they still broke into it. Can you imagine? After all we do for them.

BTW West Virginia has Summit Point. And some of the nicest people I've met.

Just for fun................

West Virginia Governor in Trouble for Not Practicing Incest
http://www.bongonews.com/layout1.php?event=492

Quote:

CHARLESTON, West Va. — Accused of having an affair with a state employee, Governor Bob Wise acknowledged last week that he was "not faithful" to his family, and asked for forgiveness.

"I had to do the toughest thing I've ever done," said Wise. "Tell my family that I had not lived up to their trust and love. I was not faithful to my family. I had sexual relations with a woman who is not related to me in any way. She's not a sister, she's not a cousin, she's not even a distant cousin. I knew it was wrong, and now I must take full responsibility."

West Virginia is home to the country's largest population of inbred families, proudly clinging to a tradition abandoned by most of the civilized world shortly after the death of Roman Emperor Caligula in 41AD.

While news of sexual affairs amongst politicians has become almost commonplace, the manner in which Wise conducted his tryst does not hold well with most West Virginians.

"I can't understand it," said a Charleston shop owner. "Bob Wise has a ton of relatives, and there's plenty of pretty-lookin' girls in his family. Him bein' Gov'ner, I 'spect he coulda had the pick of the litter, and 15 is legal consent age in these parts, so what's he gotta go gropin' around with some stranger fer? It ain't natural."

Wise, a democrat elected in 2000, faces an uphill battle to regain his credibility. According to State Republican Chairman, Kris Warner, "Most people in this state are related, so his being unfaithful hurts all of us."

Supporters of Wise point out that the Governor may not have known the woman he was involved with was not a relative. "I think it's safe to assume that the Governor anticipated that any state employee would be related to him, no matter how distantly," said a staff member. "Hell, how did the woman ever get a state job in the first place if she wasn't a relative?"

All your homies will believe it!

West Virginia.....just a little bit south of the clue line.

Video
Obama faces racism in West Virginia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-q4MDQ0cDI&feature=bz303

I somehow hope these were not the norm over there.