Returning to My Red State Roots

It's a terribly tense and busy time of year here in New York City. It always is this time of year but this year the bank's are shot (no bonuses), the mayor wants a third term (don't know why thought he was a smart guy - only goes to show you what an aphrodisiac politics can be).

With election day coming up next week I took a ride through some of my favorite red states to go to a football game last weekend. This trip was not about politics but about football. To clear my head and get a break from it all I drove to Morgantown WV for a few days of fun with very old friends. Here's what I found:

The further you are away from New York City the Red-der the state.
I was shocked as I drove West out of New Jersey to see these HUGE McCain Palin Signs. They were so big that you almost wondered if they were shouting at you. Stop for gas and a cup of coffee and you hear everyone talking about the election. This is a good sign I thought but being a Southerner by birth and habit I'll just listen. Lot's of people chime in but it's all sound bites and Fox News retorts. You get the sense the local teacher is voting Obama and the local baker is voting McCain while holding his nose. No one defends her - there's just a begnign neglect and I heard several people say "McCain's mother is over 90!"

Got me to thinking. I always liked John McCain. That very strong sense that not even the President of the United States could bully him (didn't matter which Bush or Clinton it was) and those 5 and a half years in a POW camp somehow made me like his grit. I don't much like his campaign (not sure he would disagree) and I'm afraid his last best chance has been squandered by his lack of clear belief in his own ability to get elected and this is a critical difference between he and his opponent.

This was clear to me when he picked his VP. When he's telling the truth in his bio years from now he'll say so. He seems so angry all the time because he knows he's betrayed himself. There's nothing that will piss you off like having to live with a mistake that you KNEW was a mistake while you were making it. Watch how Palin tries to slice the Christian Conservative wing of the GOP off for herself (may be doing the party that gave us Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Richard Nixon a favor) in defeat.

There's an inverse corealation between the size of the yard signs and the size of the house.
You can't make this up: I passed a trailer in Eastern PA just before Harrisburg by about 40 minutes - the sign was a long as the house and so tall it obsurced the trailer. Gotta love the American fixation on size. Hope the owner was a true Republican and got paid for the placement.

People are afraid of Obama because they don't know him.
When you look at how people make decisions and where they get information you gotta remember how bad local newspapers are today. I looked at my old hometown newspaper. I remember selling Grit on the streets when the guys would be out selling the evening edition - but that was so long ago it seems like I was in a movie but I wasn't. So the local hometown rag is now just that a chain owned large type compilation of headlines and clips from the wire services.
The only writing is in local columns where deaths and weddings are remembered. There is no local news reporting so the owner of the local newspaper can choose not to cover almost anything.

I heard my friends, all Rock Ribbed Republicans like me, tell me things that I thought I'd never hear. To wit: he's a absolute Muslim; he's for One World Rule (what the Hell!); he's gonna kill small businesses with his tax ideas and HE'S GONNA TAKE AWAY OUR GUNS! I'm not sure about this one so I've gotta go back and have a look. I think he's supporting Hunters rights but not sure what he does about other guns. I am sure I want someone to remove sugar subsidies and make some sense of the Farm Bills and ethanol nonsense.

People will cling to fiction when they don't have facts (Remember when you believed in the Tooth Fairy). So, absent hard reporting and there' is no local reporting this is what you get. I came away really awe struck by how much cable news and the internet effect what people get as news. Now keep in Mind WV will elect a Democrat as Governor, the United Mine Workers have endorsed Obama and just about every college student you saw had an Obama shirt on. All politics is Local (thanks Tip)
...more later.