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Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Mississippi Democrats Are Awesome, but W. Virginia’s Are Racist

posted by on May 14 at 10:55 AM

Rightly so, Democrats are thrilled about their victory in rural, northern Mississippi this morning, where Democrat Travis Childers won a special election to fill a vacant U.S. House seat—a seat held by the GOP for 14 years.

Mississippi—where a lowly 17% of voters have a bachelors degree and the median household income ($34,000) is $10,000 below the national median—is the exact kind of turf Howard Dean was talking about in late 2003 when he famously urged Democrats to broaden their appeal to guys in “their pickup trucks” or else “We can’t beat George Bush.” (Bush got 64% of the vote in the district in 2004)

So, three cheers to the Democrats for making important inroads.

Ahem: West Virginia’s demographics—only 15% of voters have a bachelors degree, the median household income is $34,000—are pretty similar to Mississippi’s.

Certainly, Obama’s putting together an impressive coalition—independents, dramatic increase in young voters, plus the liberal base—that can make up the difference and carry him in November.

But it’s funny to read breathless accounts about Mississippi’s “Conservative Democrat” strategy this morning on the D blogs—or “Mississippi Democrat” as Childers called himself on the trail—side-by-side (that’s you DailyKos) with dismissals of W. Va voters as a racist dunderheads.

RSS icon Comments

1

um, Mississippi is not West Virginia

Posted by Just Sayin' | May 14, 2008 10:59 AM
2

I don't work for the Stranger either Josh, does that mean that I too can post poorly thought-out drivel on SLOG?

AWESOME!

Posted by Willis | May 14, 2008 11:05 AM
3

3.5% of WV's population is African-American.
37.2% of MS's population is African-American.

"Similar" demographics, Josh?

Posted by tsm | May 14, 2008 11:07 AM
4

I'm sorry, but did you notice the *racial* demographics of Mississippi versus West Virginia?

Posted by bma | May 14, 2008 11:08 AM
5

Dude, you really need to get out of this area.

The differences between under-educated coal-mining white trash West Virginia and mostly black Mississippi are quite stark.

As anyone knows who lives anywhere on the East Coast or the Gulf.

Posted by Will in Seattle | May 14, 2008 11:11 AM
6

Hmmmm...I thought you were leaving soon?

Posted by Auric | May 14, 2008 11:13 AM
7

Alabama's got me so upset,
Tennessee made me lose my rest,
And everybody knows about Mississippi, God Damn!

Posted by Chris | May 14, 2008 11:18 AM
8

This post couldn't sound more uppity.

Posted by Brian | May 14, 2008 11:28 AM
9

Josh, jesus christ, could you be any more obsessed with black people? Your attempts at coming off as "color-blind" are laughable.

Guess the book is coming that easyily huh?

Posted by doink | May 14, 2008 11:33 AM
10

At least a few Sloggers are knowledgeable enough to note that Mississippi is not West Virginia but dull enough not to get a very simple point. News.

Posted by umvue | May 14, 2008 11:35 AM
11

Hey, give Josh some credit; he didn't try to integrate white-boy use of N-bombs this time.

Posted by tsm | May 14, 2008 11:40 AM
12

What @3 said.

Also: did you notice that Childers is white?

Posted by Trevor | May 14, 2008 11:47 AM
13

Dean said that Dems needed to get to "guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks." That's a vastly different statement than just "pickup trucks."

Posted by Travis | May 14, 2008 11:47 AM
14

What exactly is your thesis here, Josh?

Posted by w7ngman | May 14, 2008 11:51 AM
15

For clarity, Bush got 62% in 2004, not 64%.

Posted by me | May 14, 2008 11:57 AM
16

Reading some cleverer-than-thou goon from Seattle's analysis of what's going on in West Virginia and Mississippi is HILARIOUS.

Posted by Southerner | May 14, 2008 12:43 PM
17

Josh, Shouldn't you be filing resumes with the the Little Nickle instead of bothering grown ups with your bong hit 'insight'?

Posted by Scott Dow | May 14, 2008 1:14 PM

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