While the impact of Hillary Clinton’s expected huge victory in West Virginia will be blunted both by the fact that it’s expect and by the fact that Obama is basically conceding the state to her at this point, there are still troubling signs coming out of the Mountain State for the Obama camp:
Like most people in Mingo County, West Virginia, Leonard Simpson is a lifelong Democrat. But given a choice between Barack Obama and John McCain in November, the 67-year-old retired coalminer would vote Republican.
“I heard that Obama is a Muslim and his wife’s an atheist,” said Mr Simpson, drawing on a cigarette outside the fire station in Williamson, a coalmining town of 3,400 people surrounded by lush wooded hillsides.
Mr Simpson’s remarks help explain why Mr Obama is trailing Hillary Clinton, his Democratic rival, by 40 percentage points ahead of Tuesday’s primary election in the heavily white and rural state, according to recent opinion polls.
A landslide victory for Mrs Clinton in West Virginia will do little to improve her fading hopes of winning the Democratic nomination, because Mr Obama has an almost insurmountable lead in the overall race.
But Tuesday’s contest is likely to reinforce Mrs Clinton’s argument that she would be the stronger opponent for Mr McCain in November, and raise fresh doubts about whether the US is ready to elect its first black president.
(…)
No Democrat has been elected to the White House without carrying West Virginia since 1916, yet Mr Obama appears to have little chance of winning there in November. Recent opinion polls indicate that Mrs Clinton would narrowly beat Mr McCain in the state but Mr Obama would lose by nearly 20 percentage points.
(…)
“If he is the nominee, the Democrats have no chance of winning West Virginia,” said Missy Endicott, a 40- year-old school administrator. “He doesn’t understand ordinary Americans.”
West Virginia is, in other words, a microcosm of the problems that Obama faced in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana. And while it may be easy to ascribe the attitude of some of these people to racism, it’s also fair to say that a good deal of it can be pinned on class differences and the perception that Obama and his supporters are out of touch with lower middle class America.
Dismiss this problem if you will, but it very well could be what costs Barack Obama the Presidency.
May 12th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Sen. Obama is not a Muslim and his wife is not an atheist. They are Christians.
You should check out your facts before you make such strong statements.
May 12th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Gale,
I suggest you speak to Leonard Simpson of Mingo County, West Virginia.
He’s the one who said it in the newspaper article I was quoting from
May 13th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Hello, West Virginia!
BARACK OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT!
Barack Obama will WIN John McCain!
May 15th, 2008 at 2:40 am
I think the media and all of America needs to be honest. I saw clips on Jon Stewart’s show. I know not a true news agent but telling in his clips of W.VA residents stating, “he is a muslim”, “I can’t vote for a black because of all the problems we have with them”, and my favorite “I don’t like that hussein thing [referring to his middle name]“.
Honestly, I wished he would have campaigned in the state, but he could have gone door to door in the entire state and the result would have been the same. It is racism. I just have to believe that W.VA doesn’t reflect the views of MOST intelligent and truly Christian (not this W.VA. form of Christianity) persons in this nation.
May 15th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
If you don’t like West Virginia get your coal from somewhere else.
P.S. nor you or obama are welcome here.
May 15th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Sure wish the people of my state were more like West Virginians. America deserves better than Obama.