On Hillary’s Crushing Victory || A Random Blog Round-Up [Priceless Update]
By SusanUnPC on May 14, 2008 at 12:16 AM in Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, West Virginia
Truthteller just sent me the official tally page for West Virginia. Take note of the listing of Barack’s name. Well, folks, it is what it is. And one wonders, occasionally. why Mr. Obama shies away from the use of his full given name. I hope the NYTimes takes note!
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OT, but this just HAS to go first, via Gateway Pundit:
The leading Democratic blog Daily Kos celebrated the Bush wedding by posting Jenna Bush wedding pictures with gruesome photos of Iraq War casualties: …
[WHAT IN THE NAME OF GOD IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?!]
from CNN. Some bullet points.
– Culture and values matters in West Virginia, and it turns out that West Virginians don’t much value Barack Obama’s culture of bullshit and lies. A majority of West Virginia Democrats — 51% — believe that Barack Obama is _not_ honest and trustworthy, and 87% of these folks voted for Hillary Clinton. By contrast, a full 63% believe that Hillary is honest and trustworthy, and 83% of these Democrats voted for Clinton. Remarkably, 35% of West Virginia Democrats believe that among Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, only Hillary is honest and trustworthy. 98% of these folks voted for Hillary Clinton. Imagine being considered less honest and trustworthy than Hillary Clinton.
– If it came down to a vote between Barack Obama and John McCain in November, 28% said they would vote for McCain, 17% said they would not vote at all — leaving 51% of Democrat primary voters who said they would vote for Barack Obama in the fall. Hillary Clinton voters split a dead heat 36% – 35% between Obama and McCain if forced to chose between the two in November.
– A mere 1 voter in 4 said that Barack Obama doesn’t hold any views at all in common with his pastor of 20 years Rev. Jeremiah Wright. In other words, 3 out of 4 voters believe that Obama’s choice to spend 20 years with Rev. Wright does tell us something of Obama’s own views of the world.
– 44% of Democrat primary voters said they would be satisfied with the outcome of the process only if Hillary Clinton won the nomination. 53% said they would not be satisfied with an Obama candidacy for Presidency as the Democrat nominee.
– 52% of voters said that Obama does not share their values.
– Clinton took 69% of the union vote, 75% of the vote among those with no college education, and 69% of the vote among those making less than $50,000 a year.
– Obama did well among highly educated, very wealthy voters who subscribe to The Nation and look down at working class hicks who cling to their guns, their religion, and their flag pins (O.K., I’m extrapolating here, but only a bit). …
Okay, we can do some better back-of-envelope stuff. Clinton won the commander-in-chief question 68/29. The AP data I linked to above says that about 1 in 10 Obama supporters said that Clinton would make the better commander-in-chief, whereas “very few” Clinton supporters said that of Obama. …
Townhall Blog on the race factor:
Obviously, she’s been considerably bolstered in her dream to plow on by the revelation that fully 67 percent of Democratic voters wish her to plow on. Even among Obama voters, the number’s in the 40s. Talk about some validation. I’m particularly amused by the fact that the American electorate continues to mystify the Washington punditry and media by not acting in the manner pundits prescribe for the Democratic Party. It mystifies Beltway types so much, in fact, that the defiance of Democratic voters is the lede in this story: ..
Jeralyn at TalkLeft on “Media Misses the Electoral Map Issues“:
MSNBC just did an electoral vote segment. They made some critical errors.
They assumed Obama would take PA because John Kerry did. Barack Obama did poorly in PA, like he did in Ohio, with rural and blue collar voters. It’s more likely in my view that the Democrats will lose Ohio and PA if Obama is the nominee. Hillary has a better chance of keeping PA and winning back Ohio.
They gave no thought to Florida going Democratic in November. They assumed it will go to McCain. Hillary puts Florida in play.
Their silliest comments were that Obama could make the southern states competitive because of the large African-American turnout. Not that he would win them, just make them competitive and make Republicans nervous. But when you’re talking about the electoral map, coming close doesn’t count. If the Democratic nominee doesn’t win the popular vote in those states, the Republican candidate gets the electoral vote. …
…
While Clinton’s win is considered symbolic, the AP notes how Obama’s loss “underscored his weakness among blue collar voters who will be pivotal in the fall.” West Virginia exit polling indicated many Democrats would vote for McCain, instead of Obama, in an general election.
Obama, who was in Missouri today, said, “This is our chance to build a new majority of Democrats and independents and Republicans who know that four more years of George Bush just won’t do. This is our moment to turn the page on the divisions and distractions that pass for politics in Washington.”
[E]ven though Obama only campaigned a few events of one day in West Virginia this week, he has dumped the most resources into the state, from the Clinton campaign memo:
In the face of grim poll numbers, the Obama campaign has attempted to dismiss today’s outcome despite the fact that Sen. Obama has outspent us on advertising, has more staff in the state, and more than double the number of offices.He has also benefited from the support of the most high-profile endorsers in West Virginia-Sen. Jay Rockefeller and Congressman Nick Rahall. By every measure, the Obama campaign has waged an aggressive campaign in the Mountain State.
Despite being the so-called “presumptive nominee” and benefiting from these advantages, Sen. Obama has been unable to close a significant gap in the polls.
2:1, 3:1, or 4:1, it doesn’t seem to matter what the money Obama poured in has been, in terms of the expected results tonight.
But, that is why I commented last month that I thought WV would narrow down to around a 10 point margin in WV. It really is mind-boggling that Clinton, in today’s environment, is expected to win over 60 percent of the vote.
Obama’s campaign didn’t expect it. Their spreadsheet, which had been very accurate, predicted losing by ‘only’ a 43-55 margin.
BTD on what the night will bring:
I believe the storyline should be the one I have been discussing for days, how can Obama do better with white working class voters. There are thing he can do to improve his performance with that demo. I won’t be holding my breath that the Media will find that an interesting issue to discuss. The evilness of Hillary Clinton will be the subject of the night as it is most nights for the Media. I really wonder what they will talk and write about if and when Clinton is out of the race. They have nothing to say about either Obama or McCain. Seriously.I detest the way that traditional media interjects its decision-making into influencing Democratic politics with their boss media mentality.
West Virginia results by demographics
As predicted, Obama got drubbed in West Virginia, so it’s time to update my series on the predictors of his state-level support. If we put the exit poll data in context, we can see that he did much worse among whites in West Virginia than we would expect based in states with similar black populations: …
[...]
However, he did about as poorly as we would expect among whites given the proportion of state residents with college degrees, though West Virginia has fewer college graduates than any previous primary state in the sample:
Hillary Whomps Obama In West Virginia– Wright Factor Impacts Vote …Update: Rove Klans Byrd (Video) ..
Karl Rove Klans Byrd:
Don’t forget… “Senator Byrd, when he was a young man, was active in the Ku Klux Klan.”** 7 in 10 voters believe that Obama shares the views of his pastor and father-figure, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
Hillary thumped Obama today in the West Virginia Democratic Primary.
FOX News reported: …
Townhall blog:
Surprise, surprise. Hillary Clinton wins West Virginia by a hefty margin. The New York Times helpfully informs us that
The voter surveys showing a strong racial component to the West Virginia voting suggest that Mr. Obama would still face pockets of significant Democratic resistance if he does become the party’s first black nominee.
In other words, the Times suggests, many of those voting against Obama are doing so for racist reasons.
[Following a lengthy analysis of exit polls]
Overall, West Virginia provides a picture into the opinions and preferences of a particular slice of Democratic voter. WV is as skewed in its own way as South Carolina beacuse it over represents this part of the electorate; even so, it is an accurate reflection of how this state will impact the Electoral College vote in November. I think that the defection and abstention numbers can be cut in half for measuring the November vote, but even that allowance still spells disaster for the Obama campaign in what should be a blue state.
… However, it looks like WV Democratic party leadership is already looking past their commitments to Sen. Clinton. If Gov. Manchin’s invitation to Sen. Obama to attend a long-planned Clinton rally in heavily Clinton-voting territory isn’t a huge signal, I don’t know what is. (Of course, knowing our Governor, it could also be a signal that he’s going courting for a Cabinet nod…but maybe that’s just me.) Hell, Carville’s already started talking party unity and writing out a check for the Obama campaign…way to piddle on the Clinton parade today, James.
Meanwhile, it’s on to the next set of primaries. And the continuing saga of questions raised by anonymous e-mail spammers taken seriously by uncritical readers. The stupid…it burns.
I just want to remind you that 80.3% of Americans live in metropolitan areas. Hillary Clinton just won a blowout in the second most rural state in America. Sorry, folks — Hillary’s America may be made up exclusively of white people in overalls, but the real America isn’t.
****
My favorite statistic from the CNN exit poll (page 2): 35% of West Virginia voters said Hillary Clinton was not “honest and trustworthy” — but 32% of that 35% (or 11% of the total electorate) voted for her anyway. (“Yeah, but she’s white.”) …
Andrew Sullivan on “Voting For a Half-Breed”:
A reader writes:
In your post "Email In West Virginia", you close with "When people simply refuse to deal with fact, something else is going on." I’ve been thinking about what’s going on for a while. This FT piece set me off . At the end of the article, they quote a young West Virginia man who
"insisted he was not racist", but said "I want someone who is a
full-blooded American as president".At first, I thought this was standard anti-immigrant stuff. Then I had an epiphany.
Remember "Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner"? A rich, highly educated,
well-spoken, widely respected, black doctor freaks out his girlfriend’s
progressive, liberal, elitist, white parents? Yes, that was 1967, but
how far have we really come since then?My own grandmother was a liberal atheist. She campaigned for the Equal
Rights Amendment. She came from a progressive, politically active,
elite liberal farming family in Iowa. She believed in civil rights for
all. She treated Native Americans with respect at a time when they
were still considered dirty Injuns. And she had no problem getting
along with blacks in Seattle before she died.What my grandmother absolutely would not tolerate, however, was
miscegenation.Blacks, Asians, Jews – all of these were perfectly
respectable associates. But marrying one, for a "white person", was
completely unacceptable. The ultimate taboo, really. For older
people, and people who live in areas that have long been predominantly
white, the miscegenation issue is the last bastion of knee-jerk racial
identity. …
Rockefeller–who has endorsed Obama—argued that Obama’s message of economic populism will resonate well in a state that “depends on the federal government a lot.”
Although he stopped short of predicting a victory for Obama in November, Rockefeller said that presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain’s message of small government will turn off West Virginia voters.
“[McCain] should do very, very badly there,” Rockefeller said.
Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, captured West Virginia in both 1992 and 1996, while Democrats lost the state to George W. Bush in the last two presidential elections.
“West Virginia has gone Republican in the last two cycles because of social issues, not because of economic issues,” said Rockefeller.
Rockefeller also argued that West Virginia’s relative isolation in the Appalachian Mountains, has made his state’s voters wary of outsiders, which has made it hard for Obama to gain traction in a state so familiar with the Clinton family. …
P.S. MSNBC is actually still giving LIVE coverage!
by Ronald Scott
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