With its pundits and pollsters, bloggers and blowhards, Washington might be the worst place from which to gauge the political mood of the country. So when I need a political reality check, I head for West Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. J—my grandparents—live in a small town near the Ohio River, a God-fearing, flag-waving, camouflage-wearing kind of place. Mr. and Mrs.… return to article
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Reader Comments (20)Page 1 of 1 pagesI have a very hard time believing that anyone with roots in the South, or from the South, is going to vote for a “damn Yankee”.
I think our better bet is with Kucinich, from Ohio.
Everybody has opinions. That one’s mine.
Posted by K.A. Kincade on Dec 5, 2003 at 6:01 PM Dr. Dean is the man. But he is ‘people powered.’
I don’t ‘work’ for the Dean campaign, but I love the guy, and hope www.deanforamerica.com is successful in generating the necessary revenue to beat Bush.
On issues, Dean wins. Now comes the hard part: the money!
And bookmark Craig Aaron’s page.
Posted by Dan McCleod, PhD on Dec 5, 2003 at 7:37 PM Before anyone can oust the present dictator’s puppet, Bush, (Karl Rove being the de facto dictator), Karl Rove has to get the Karl Rove treatment. His iniquities are legion as is his idol in hell. Ambassador Joseph Wilson can tell anyone who has the stomach to listen just how deep from the depths of an ordure-filled sea of evil Rove can come at his enemies. That is why his fondest wish, after having his CIA wife’s cover blown to frighten him and anyone else with the temerity to NOT follow the neocon road to DAMNATION, was to see Karl Rove frog-tied and marched to prison. I only bring this up because most of the Democratic candidates are pretty much decent guys and one of them, Dean, Kucinich, Clark, or whomever, MUST first call out Karl Rove and use HIS tactics to eliminate HIM . Otherwise, Rove will still have free rein to J.E. Hooverize and Goebells-ize. Result: Eventually force down the head of whoever seems the most worthy opponent our Selectident under a sea of phony, despicable, and scandalous excretia. And Rove has all the complicit media behind him so his job is fairly simple. It’s not like he’s original or creative but he has too many important contacts in strategic areas for anyone seriously running aginst Bush to ignore. He is indeed a tyrant always waiting to ferociously and terminally assassinate his boy Dubbya’s foes one way or another. Believe it! Cut off Rove’s stinking head and the dragon of Bushery shrivels impotently back into the feces from whence it came. Does anyone think this neocon-impelled bunch of goons who call themselves the Republicans and the crypto-Republican Democrats who suck their socks have the time or inclination to come up with the: Destroy America agenda we have been witnessing in Congress by their pushing bill after bill scripted toward that end evolve out of thin air or was planned by them all years in advance? Think agian. Think Karl Rove and you have solved the riddle of the last 3 years.
Posted by Dominick on Dec 5, 2003 at 9:33 PM I’m definitely supporting Kucinich and believe that he’ll soon be given media coverage he deserves. It is way too soon to decide right now, and recent news about Dean has not been all that favorabl.
Guess time will tell! Good story, though, and enjoy your style.
MM
Posted by Maxine Mesbergen on Dec 5, 2003 at 10:56 PM how can anyone call Bush a dictator? Isn’t a dictator someone who maintains king-like status by using the military? Isn’t there an election next year? Isn’t there a chance (albeit small) that Bush won’t be president in 2005? Doesn’t he still have to obey the courts?
If you don’t like Bush, that’s okay. But don’t make foolish statements.
Posted by brad on Dec 6, 2003 at 1:05 PM Thanks for an insightful article about how people in West Virginia think and feel about the political scene. I am pleased to not be compared to the “hillbilly image” so often used in the media.
I am a true, deep rooted “Southern gal” who has learned to appreciate our “Northern” friends and to understand them more.
I believe we have several good Democratic candidates and “We the People” will make a good choice this next time.
thanks for a good article.
Posted by Lynn R. Hartz, Ph.D. on Dec 6, 2003 at 3:10 PM AFTER THE 2000 ELECTION I WAS SICKENED THAT GEORGE BUSH WON THE WEST VIRGINIA ELECTORAL VOTES. DURING THE CAMPAIGN , BUSHES CROONIES AIRED POLITICAL ADS STATING THAT AL GORE WOULD TAKE AWAY YOUR HUNTING RIFLES. THAT WAS DOWN RIGHT CRAZY! ANYBODY WITH 1/2 A MIND COULD UNDERSTAND THAT ANY CANDIDATE THE WANTS GUN CONTROL WANTS CONTROL ON AUTOMATIC WEAPONS. WE IN WEST VIRGINIA HAVE FELT THE JOBLOSS THAT CAME WITH THIS THIEVING PRESIDENT AND WE WONT ALLOW THAT TO HAPPEN AGAIN. ALTHOUGH I HAVENT ENDORSED ANY CANDIDATE YET , ANYONE(INCLUDING MY 7 YEAR OLD SON) COULD DO A BETTER JOB THAN OUR WAR HUNGRY “W” IN WASHINGTON!
Posted by DORMAN B. SARGENT III on Dec 6, 2003 at 5:57 PM I believe West Virginians certainly understand one concept Dubya never gets,..."fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, f*ck you (however, we will do so with great respect and ever so earnestly)” *LOL* We certainly undertand the difference between “politics” and a political *ho**; one is exercised towards the interests of people and the other is about doing anything to make a buck. Dubya can forget ho-in’ this wild, wonderful territory again. We know exactly who wears his panties,...predatory PNAC and big whig CEOs.
Posted by Leslee Hamrick on Dec 6, 2003 at 8:35 PM My plan is to get Congressman Kucinich in The White House, either as President or as Vice-President in 2004. As of the other night up real late, after hearing General Wesley Clark on C-Span, I may be strongly advocating to The DNC and DLC to run General Wesley Clark for President. I think he is the only candidate who is very capable of beating Bush and I don’t have a real probelm with him or don’t much thus far, but he and Congressman Kucinich seem to be saying the same things and Gen. Clark has the 30 years of exeperience in The U.S. Army to easily prove that. He would blow Bush out of the water, but not a chance with the others, including Howard Dean. Republicans don’t like Dean much at all, and we have to reach out to disenchanted and non-voters of course a must, but we would get votes from Republican Registered Voters as well as most Democratic Registered Voters that always vote in every election so that is so essential in WINNING 2004! Once General Clark gets nominated, then we can push big time, to have him select Congressman Kucinich as Vice-President. The perfect combo that I think General Clark would not shun, and be very open to, and probablly pick if WE WORK AT IT I really do believe! Please mention this or send this to everyone in the campaign.
We The People,
Patrick Scot Tanner
Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio
for President of The United States of America
1730 Shawnee Dr. Apt. E
Owensboro, KY 42301
(270) 926-8115
or
www.kucinich.us
Posted by Patrick Scot Tanner on Dec 7, 2003 at 7:33 PM Where Dean is going to get bitten hard and on many issues because he is a centrist, is his proposal to leave only 78,000 troops in Iraq. By doing that, you put our men and women in more danger of getting all of them killed. You either stay the full course, with the number of troops Bush has over there, NOT! or, you completely pull out!
We The People,
Patrick Scot Tanner
Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio
for President of The United States of America
1730 Shawnee Dr. Apt. E
Owensboro, KY 42301
(270) 926-8115
or
www.kucinich.us
Posted by Patrick Scot Tanner on Dec 7, 2003 at 8:15 PM Of course Bush won West Virginia- they don’t support KKK members there. The “Dean of the Senate” that you drool over hates blacks and Jews. Decent people think that’s wrong.
That guy that is so vain he makes sure every piece of pork has his name on it. Name another Senator that does that.
Anybody want to dispute the fact that he’s a “former” Klansmen? Anybody want to dispute that he used the “N” word last year in an interview with Tony Snow? That’s your leadership. That’s your “dean”. No wonder African-Americans only 12% vote. You’re using them and they know it.
Posted by Ty on Dec 8, 2003 at 3:37 PM I am a long time Democrat but Dean’s candidacy really scares me. When you look at how Rove and his mentor Atwater have operated in the past, this election will get dragged down into the mud and cause so much division in the country if Dean is nominated. Dean’s history of working in a Planned Parenthood Clinic will bring out the prolife crazies and the civil union endorsement will bring out the gay bashers. This election should be about Bushes dangerous and inept policies not these wedge issues.
Posted by Jeff on Dec 9, 2003 at 1:00 PM Uh, Ty? Not to rain on your parade, but Dean isn’t a Senator....
Posted by Aaron on Dec 9, 2003 at 3:14 PM Okay Jeff, let me get this straight. Becasue Karl Rove is a nasty piece of work, Dean shouldn’t run? By that logic, the US should have stayed out of WWII, because Hitler was sure ready to drag things down into the mud over that whole “conquest of Europe” thing.
Posted by Aaron on Dec 9, 2003 at 3:17 PM hey ty, have you ever been to west virginia? well , i was born and raised here and i don’t particularly agree with your asumption about robert c. byrd. to let you know , mr byrd happens to be very well liked in this state. i guess that you don’t believe in jesus do you? let he without sin cast the first stone! im not proud of sen. byrd’s past, actually none of are , but he done alot of good things for our state and i call his office in d.c. quite frequently do thank him. as for illinois , i guess a slave loving lincoln is a better image , huh?
Posted by DORMAN B. SARGENT III on Dec 10, 2003 at 2:51 PM Hey Brad, “foolish statements”, eh? How dare anyone call any BUT those statements coming from anywhere to the Right of Bill Clinton foolish? All these neocon closet-fairies are good for is to deceive, distort, outright try to shout you down with their insanely contrived-to-arouse-the basesest instinct - tautologies and idiotic senseless unending verbal garbage at the behest of this regime’s big shots...while trying to make an honest man look like he doesn’t know what he’s talking about by not letting him finish talking - and you come on here saying that because somebody KNOWS Bush IS a dictator that that’s foolish? What world are you living in? Do you realize that the Romans couldn’t admit they lived under a dictator until centuries after Caesar was assassinated? When will YOU wake up, Foxite? Just keep on smiling while the Communist Corporations rip off all our tax revenues while reaping in even more by dint of the myriad expenditures of illegal wars...while poor people’s kids keep getting killed and the rest of us, like you, for example, can’t even admit to ourselves that we’ve been snookered and hog-tied while singing the National Anthem. Black Box; Diebold...Patriot Acts I and II; Embedded media; giving away $40 billion for a, “privatized army”, to take over sometime in the near future. How is something paid for with OUR money - privatized? When you can figure these realities out, then perhaps you’ll know who and what to call, foolish.
Posted by Dominick Mastroserio on Dec 11, 2003 at 10:58 PM Aaron, Dean shouldn’t run because he can’t win with his background. Whether you like it or not abortion is a deeply divisive issue that produces ambivalent feelings in most of the population and most Catholics will vote against a doctor who has worked in an abortion clinic. Even many people who are pro choice will have doubts about voting for a doctor who has performed abortions. He can’t win without the Catholic vote in states like Michigan and Pennsylvania. Because Dean is not competitive in the South, republicans won’t have to spend one dime there and can spend and target every Catholic parish and district in the country. Instead of stealing Paul Wellstones line about being from the Democratic wing of the Democratic party he should change it to the lemming wing of the Democratic party.
Posted by Jeff on Dec 12, 2003 at 4:32 PM Aaron- You’re right- Dean is not a Senator. My fault. Sorry that I forgot to dumb down the reference there- thought it was just too obvious. Will do so in the future.
Posted by Ty on Dec 13, 2003 at 1:24 AM Great article!
Thank you for dispelling the myth that God-fearing, flag-waiving people are automatically for Bush.
American Values:
- Common sense.
- Decency.
- Hard work.
- Family.Bush:
- Tried to swallow a pretzel whole.
- AWOL to the air national guard.
- Never help a job before getting to be CEO of his own company.
- Left town to go fishing the day of his daughter’s operation.Thanks again for publicing that most Americans share some core values, no matter where we live or what party we belong to!
Posted by Ed Mellon on Dec 18, 2003 at 5:43 PM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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