Recent polls show Barack Obama trailing John McCain by large double-digit margins in Kentucky and West Virginia. Also, Obama polls poorly in other portions of Appalachia.
In 1960 John F. Kennedy made a highly visible and publicized visit to West Virginia during the primary campaign. He won the Democratic primary there and carried the state in the general election. Voters in West Virginia warmed to Kennedy despite the fact that he came from a privileged New England background. This happened because Kennedy made a point to address the region’s poverty and other economic woes.
In many areas of West Virginia today photographs of John F. Kennedy appear above the fireplace mantle with a painting of Jesus. In short, the Kennedy name is still magic in Appalachia.
Caroline Kennedy
The Obama campaign should consider organizing campaign events throughout the Applachian communities of West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, and eastern Tennessee. In an ideal event he would be led by Caroline Kennedy, a strong Obama supporter and member of his vice presidential search committee. Perhaps other members of the Kennedy family could join Obama as well. Ted Kennedy, if healthy enough to campaign, would be another huge bonus. Maria Shriver, wife of California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is a member of the Kennedy clan and an Obama supporter, would add a third Kennedy celebrity to the entourage.
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There is a possibility that Libertarian candidate Bob Barr could pull enough votes from McCain in Georgia to tip the state to Barack Obama.
Due to the GOP’s razor-thin victory margin of 537 votes in the 2000 Florida presidential election, it is clear that the third-party candidacy of Ralph Nader drew enough votes away from Al Gore to tip the state — and the presidency — to George Bush. Nader received 2.9 million votes nationwide and 97,000 votes in Florida.
Nader is running once again — the fifth time he has thrown his hat in the ring for the nation’s highest office. But many liberals who initially admired Nader’s commitment to environmental issues, good government, and his stance against corporate greed, now tend to view his five-time candidacy as something of a joke. Also, Barack Obama has solid support from the left wing of the Democratic Party, from which Nader drew many of his votes in 2000.
Few political observers give Nader much hope of pulling significant numbers of votes away from Obama. Nader is perceived by many voters as an ineffective Don Quixote burdened by a big dose of personal narcissism. Therefore, when the Nader campaign is brought up by reporters or in a debate, Obama’s best strategy is to treat Nader with respect and acknowledge his contributions to society. But generally ignoring the Nader effort, when at all possible, is the prudent course of action.
But unlike Nader, the candidacy of Bob Barr as the standard bearer of the Libertarian Party could possibly offer Obama an opportunity, particularly in Barr’s home state of Georgia. Barr represented Georgia in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican for four terms from 1995 to 2003. He is well known in the state and highly regarded by many white conservatives. (Click Here to Read More)
In 1989 L. Douglass Wilder was elected governor of the state of Virginia. He was the first African American to be elected governor of any of the 50 states. Wilder counted on a large turnout of black voters. But blacks make up only 20 percent of the electorate in the state of Virginia so Wilder needed a large share of the white vote in order to be elected.
His election strategies for winning white voters may provide a useful roadmap for Barack Obama.
In 1969 Wilder was the first African American elected to the Virginia state Senate since Reconstruction. In 1989 he then decided to run for governor of Virginia. Wilder’s staff calculated that he would need more than 90 percent of the black vote and 42 percent of the white vote in order to win the election.
Advertising campaigns emphasized Wilder’s Horatio Alger success story showing how he had worked his way up from poverty to establish his own law practice. Media campaigns truthfully portrayed him as a solid family man. The focus of the campaign was to show white Virginians that he was not a black radical, but a patriotic, responsible, hard-working man who shared their values. (Click Here to Read More)
Barack Obama was wise to respond immediately to Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling which overruled the District of Columbia’s blanket ban on the ownership of handguns. In a statement, Obama praised the Supreme Court decision and affirmed his own belief in the right to bear arms. This is solidly good politics in potential swing states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin, New Mexico, and New Hampshire where there are large numbers of gun owners.
But Obama also offered comfort to gun control enthusiasts in stating, “What works in Chicago may not work in Cheyenne. We can work together to enact common-sense laws so that guns do not fall into the hands of terrorists and criminals. We can protect the constitutional right to bear arms and keep our communities and our children safe.”
Targeted gun control is an issue that resonates particularly with millions of women voters who fear that their children will become caught up in gun violence. (Click Here to Read More)
Here is a dramatic initiative that tells the nation that Obama stands for the new America in contrast to John McCain, who belongs to the old America.
Tens of thousands of concerned citizens visit the Barack Obama campaign Web site every day to donate money, learn about the candidate and the issues, or to read the thousands of blogs and forums discussing the presidential race.
This presents the Obama campaign with a unique opportunity to leverage individual volunteerism to support efforts in this country and around the world to alleviate hunger, disease, and individual suffering.
Why not add a page to BarackObama.com about volunteering opportunities for important and worthy causes around the nation and the world? (Click Here to Read More)
Why is Obama letting the GOP walk all over him on the tax issue when under his plan 95 percent of Americans will pay less taxes?
Now that Barack Obama has sewn up the Democratic nomination he is under heavy attack from the GOP as a “tax and spend liberal.” This has been the standard GOP line of political warfare since the days of Ronald Reagan. As the months go by, Obama, like other Democrats before him, will be charged with being a kind of diseased kleptomaniac who will tax everything in sight and cause the poor voter to pay for it.
Listen to Lindsay Graham, Republican senator from South Carolina. He simplifies the election by saying, “You got a high-tax guy and you’ve got a low-tax guy and that will be the simple choice.”
Elections are more complicated. But over the years, the tax and spend charge has been a highly effective weapon for the GOP.
To the amazement of OEW, Obama has been been reluctant to take the offensive on the tax issue. This is surprising because studies of Obama’s plan show that a huge majority of Americans would be better off under Obama’s plan than they would under the tax plan proposed by John McCain.
Let’s emphasize this again. For ordinary folks, Obama would cut taxes more than McCain would. (Click Here to Read More)
No new nuclear power plants have been built in the United States for the past 20 years. But surging energy costs are causing many politicians on both sides of the political aisle to take a new look at the possibility of employing nuclear power to ease America’s dependency on foreign oil.
John McCain has called for the building of 45 new nuclear reactors in the United States by the year 2030. McCain proposes to offer substantial federal subsidies for up to three large-scale nuclear reactor projects.
Barack Obama comes from Illinois, a state where 40 percent of all electricity is generated by nuclear power plants. Obama does not touch on the politically sensitive issue of nuclear power on the energy pages of his campaign Web site. His consistent position has been that nuclear power will not solve America’s energy problems. Nevertheless, he takes a sensible view that informed scientists and economists ought to investigate whether nuclear power should be part of the solution to America’s energy needs. However, Obama remains wary that new nuclear power can be produced economically and safely. And he emphasizes that before any new construction begins there must be a surefire way of securely disposing the nuclear waste generated by these power plants.
The issue of nuclear waste is one in which the candidates’ views are diametrically opposed. And it is an issue that works in favor of Barack Obama in the state of Nevada. (Click Here to Read More)
Tom Bradley
Much has been written about the so-called Bradley Effect. This phenomenon was named after former Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley who lost a close gubernatorial election in California after pre-election polls showed him with a comfortable lead.
The Bradley Effect occurs when white voters tell pollsters they are willing to vote for a black candidate, but upon entering the voting booth, their deeply ingrained racial bias kicks in and they pull the lever for the white candidate.
It remains to be seen if the Bradley Effect will play a role in this November’s election. There is some evidence from a number of states that Obama fared better in pre-primary polls and in exit polls conducted on primary day than he did in the actual election results.
But there may be a second effect that might also skew the polling in this unique election year. We’ll call this the “Obama Effect.” (Click Here to Read More)
Exit polls in the Democratic primaries show that Obama polled better among Jews than he did among non-Jewish whites. Obama may not have a Jewish problem so much as he has a problem with older voters generally.
Barack Obama’s plan to sit down with leaders of Iran, his plan to remove U.S. forces from Iraq, and the persistent rumors that he is a Muslim cause unease among members of the Jewish community. Also, many Jewish voters are unsure about the depth of Obama’s commitment to protect Israel. Yet, over many elections, Jews have been steady loyalists in the Democratic Party.
Still, Obama needs to make a major speech outlining his Middle East policies and reiterate his strong and unwavering support for Israel.
In past presidential elections, the Democratic Party candidate typically won 75 percent of the Jewish vote. Now the question is, Will Barack Obama have trouble attracting the usual core Jewish constituency this fall? (Click Here to Read More)
On the night he clinched the Democratic presidential nomination, nationwide television showed Barack and Michelle Obama celebrating the news by doing the fist bump, also known as the fist pound or simply as the “dap.”
One commentator on Fox News referred to it as a “terrorist fist jab.”
For the Obamas the fist bump is today’s equivalent to the passionate on-camera embrace of Al and Tipper Gore after Gore had clinched the nomination in 2000.
The origins of the fist bump are disputed. But despite its widespread use today by whites and blacks, for many white Americans the fist bump is distinctly a black gesture and one that has origins in radical traditions of Jesse Jackson or even the Black Panthers or Malcolm X.
For this reason, the fist bump can be just another reminder to many whites that the Obamas are black. (Click Here to Read More)
