Again you have to resort to racism to explain why your candidate will lose WV. Clinton can deliver WV to the democrats, along with Florida and Ohio. What part of "loser" do you not understand?

Time is running out, but if we stick together we can turn this around. Hillary '08!
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/05/bizarro-day-at-tpmcafe.php

Victoria Switzer, a retired social studies teacher, was on phone-bank duty one night during the Pennsylvania primary campaign. One night was all she could take: "It wasn't pretty." She made 60 calls to prospective voters in Susquehanna County, her home county, which is 98 percent white. The responses were dispiriting. One caller, Switzer remembers, said he couldn't possibly vote for Obama and concluded: "Hang that darky from a tree!"

Seriously dude, I didn't see any answer yesterday. Whats the deal with you and WVA?

Are you guys kidding? WV voted for Huckabee.
They're not to be taken seriously.

I am ashamed and disgusted by all this talk about colored folks. Everybody knows there are plenty of decent ones around, and I am sure Obama is one of them, he just doesn't have any business being president. The ones who talked him into this fool notion should be ashamed.

I reckoned that I never thought I would vote for a woman for president in my lifetime, but I see what is going on here. They say Bill Clinton cannot run again which I don't understand, we are not communist russia. But instead he has his wife running for him, and she is one brave little woman, I will give her that. Once it is over she will go back to taking care of the house like any woman naturally would and Bill will run the president part again.

Why don't people understand. I thought city people were supposed to be sophisticated but it's all bizarro this year.

It's a howl listening to all the hand wringing here and elsewhere about Hilary can't win this, Obama can't win that.....I suggest y'all hop over to redstate.com and listen to the Repukes. They sound like an echo of here. With all that dispair and hand-wringing, maybe Bob Barr thinks there's an opening. Come on, folks. John McCain can win only if the average Democratic voter (and forget West Virginia, forget Kentucky) forgets that McCain and the Repukes are the enemy.

And the most interesting news tonight isn't West Virginia. It's Mississippi, where the Dems took the House seat in a solidly Red district. And boy, is the NRCC in a tizzy over its third straight loss.
So, come on, quite splitting the hairs. Let the idiots that will find some reason to stay home or vote McCain do it, there's always Dems that do it anyway (since when have the Reagan Democrats ever showed up?). We can do it, but it will have to be together.

Thank you for speaking up. These stories need to be told. The "your playing the race card" argument and the "you're calling all of Hillary's supports racist" argument is being used to cover up the truth here. Of course not all Clintno supporters are racists, but this ugly behavior needs to be called out for what it is.

Thank you for sharing this story. I am incredibly disappointed in Hillary for her enthusiastic celebration of a victory that is certainly driven by this kind of thinking. I have been half listening to the cable news all night and am shocked they can't seem to simply come out and say this is racist. They say he hasn't found a way to reach them or that they don't trust him.

No I won't read the post. If you choose to believe this was all about race, then you live in a world where you can only be bitter. If you project your own feelings onto everyone, then everyone will always appear to act exactly as you expect them to act. If electing Obama was all about electing a black man for you, then I suspect his election will not be enough to make you put down your hatred.

In deciding your vote for president today, was the race of the candidate:
Clinton Obama
The single most important factor 85 10
One of several important factors 79 14
Not an important factor 59 34

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21226014

From CNN:

May 13, 2008
Why West Virginians turned out for Clinton
Posted: 10:45 PM ET

From CNN Political Producer Alexander Marquardt
Clinton’s West Virginia supporters say they weren't swayed by grim pundit assessments.

CHARLESTON, West Virginia (CNN) –There was never much of a question about who would win the West Virginia primary. The electorate is made up of older, white, blue-collar voters that have become Hillary Clinton's base.

But they've also been hearing a week of speculation that Obama's path to the nomination is inevitable. So why turn out?

"I think she's got the experience to get us out of a deep hole," said Johnny Nance, a preservation contractor who owns the building in Huntington where Clinton has a campaign office. "You can't win this country's [presidency] without winning West Virginia. We've picked them the whole 20th century," added Nance before saying he'd support whomever the Democratic nominee is.

"She's brilliant," said Veda Hughes, 58, joined by three friends at Clinton's victory party Tuesday night.

Does the impression the New York senator can't win bother her? "Heck no! No! We're in this 'til the end, it doesn't bother us at all!"

"I think Obama is a wonderful speaker and I love what he says but I think Hillary has the experience, she knows what's going on. She tells what she's going to do," added companion Amy Wade, 35.

Several people pointed to potential baggage Obama could carry into the general election.

"I don't think his wife has been a credit to him, I don't think his minister has been a credit to him," said Diane Givens.

Surgical technician Jeremy Elswick, 30, agreed that Wright was a negative and said Obama didn't do enough to woo the voters of West Virginia. "He just seemed like he had his nose up in the air. She seems like she's for the blue-collar people of West Virginia."

Clinton heads to Oregon — considered Obama-friendly territory — on Friday before campaigning in Kentucky, a state whose demographics are very similar to West Virginia's.

From my post last night:

It appears that Obama has a big problem in Appalachia. I wrote about this back before the PA primary (western PA runs along the foothills of the Allegheny Range of the Appalachian Mountains), and it appears that the sentiments that run through West Virginia are pretty much the same as those I've experienced first hand here in PA.

I just read Josh's excellent piece on the front page, and I'm glad he printed the maps of the Appalachian region. It's a pretty clear overlay when you compare the area where Hillary received over 65% of the vote, and the region that the Appalachian Mts. run through.

This is a region that has known poverty and isolation for a long time. The industries that used to exist here are long gone, the educational systems are some of the worst in the country, and the decay that has set in is older and worse than probably anywhere else in the country.

Josh also posted these stats on the front page:

RACE, GENDER AS VOTING FACTORS One in four Clinton voters and about one in 10 Obama voters said race was an important factor in their vote. About one in five Clinton voters said gender was an important factor in their vote. Nearly as many Obama voters said that.

25% of Hillary's supporters in WV openly admit that race played a factor in their decision. One has to imagine that the number is actually a bit higher, as not everyone is as honest about this.

I many ways, it's Obama's "bitter" observation in a nutshell. There is a lot of fear and mistrust that is born of extreme poverty. Just check out the CNN or NY Times county maps of WV to see just how low the median income is in most of the WV counties.

The big question now, of course, is what can the Democrats and presumptive nominee Obama do to help the people of Appalachia not vote against their own interests?

To be clear, I'm not calling an entire state racist. What I wan to point out is that, based on the stories from Obama campaign workers and from WV voters, racism is much more prevalent in this region than in other parts of the country. It's a problem. We don't do anyone any favors by ignoring it or attempting to shout down those that are shining a light on the problem.

What is the cure for racism and bigotry? Information. Education. Jobs. Healthcare.

Thank you!