Posted under Election 2008
Kudos last night to North Carolina voters for nominating B.J. Lawson, a bonified Ron Paul Republican to the nomination for the 4th Congressional District and re-electing Walter Jones Jr. to the sixth CD. Jones was the only GOP member of Congress to endorse Paul for President.
This is important because while Lawson faces an uphillclimb in a heavily Democratic district, just the fact he won the district puts it Ron Paul’s hands. Given the way the GOP divies up its delegates to its national convention by Congressional District, controlling a district is a big deal and means Ron Paul’s Republicans are going to have influence and power within the party in the future regardless what happens this fall.
Jones’ election is also important to show Republicans that opposing the war, even in a district filled with military bases, is not a political death sentence. Voters do actually respect Congressmen who take a stand even if they may disagree with it (or maybe they privately agree. If they thought Jones was cut-in-run peacenik, wouldn’t the margin have been just a little closer than 2-to-1?).
Obama’s big win in North Carolina was the clincher for him. It always was his firewall and if he lost that he would ahve been in trouble. Unlike Pennsylvania and Ohio, independents and Republicans can vote in the Demcratic primary and that, plus 90% of the black won gave him the big margin of vitocry he needed, more so than people expected.
But in western Carolina, which is Andrew Jackson’s ancestral homeland, Clinton still won by big margins as she did in southern Indiana. She’ll probably rack up big margins of victory in Kentucky and West Virginia as well. Larsion points out no Democrat has ever won the White House without winning at least one of these two states and Obama is not going to win them in the fall which I would agree.
But by that same token, has any Republican won the White House without winning both Colorado and Nevada? Obama may lose big in the Ohio River Valley region, but he can offset this by winning in Nevada, Colorado and perhaps Montana as well. McCain will probably win Arizona and New Mexico, but Obama will surely win Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin and I think Missouri too. Virginia will go the Dems way and North Carolina could be competitive for Obama. That’s more than enough electoral votes to compensate for the loss of Kentucky and West Virginia.
Virginia, Nevada and Colorado are some of the fastest growing states in the country while places like West Virginia, Kentucky and southern Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois and western Pennsylvania, are in decline and have been for a long time. White working class voters are a shrinking part of thepopulation, not growing. It’s amazing the amount of media attention they get in spite of this fact. Many middle class people you find in small towns and rural areas aren’t just farmers or small factory workers and machinists, they’re firemen, cops, county workmen, the school workforce. They’re all government employees and they’re all unionized. There are more voters with college educations than ever before, even if it is a communty college.Â
Republicans can thank their support for free trade and unlimited immigration for destroying the very foundation of the base that made the party the majority presidential and Congressional party from 1980 until 2008 ( we presume).
Filmer on 07 May 2008 at 3:36 pm #
The wives and families of the military members who are constantly deployed support ending the war, even if they aren’t open and vocal about it. I bet Jones cleaned up with the military spouse vote.
Also, running as the Republican in heavily Democratic districts is one way to get a leg up in the GOP. The party may not support you monetarily, but it is always appreciative of people willing to step up to be sacrificial lambs. As long as they don’t embarrass the Party.
Trent Hill on 07 May 2008 at 5:03 pm #
I agree with Filmer’s statements on military wives. Just read
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2006/01/the_three_conversions_of_walter_b_jones.html
Jones’ story will put tears in MY eyes, so you know military wives are sympathetic.
roho on 08 May 2008 at 12:41 am #
Like Alabama, many states allow anybody of any party affiliation to vote in the primary. At one time, I always voted for the worse candidate in the Democratic Primary, knowing that my final vote would be GOP in the General Election…….I was a registered DEM, voting conservative!
This year is different for many like myself. McCain’s a NUT, and Hillary is the residual excrement of the ninties!………………..So, some will place a “NON STATUS QUO” vote for Obama, just to see if he can live through the 4 year experience! (If he really changes Washington for the good, making America first decisions, and changing our foreign policy, that will be good!)……If he turns out to be against Israel as a shadow state within the U.S., he will most likely meet up with JFK shortly!(So, pick your VP wisely.)…..Worse case scenario is 4 years of more nuttiness from DC!
For myself, I’m gambling that my generation has seen it all, and decided a “Principle Vote” for Chuck baldwin is a return to character and conviction! If Ron Paul steps forward and says that the GOP is far too messed up for him, and he is supporting Baldwin(With money and political ideology)……….things could get REVOLUTIONARY!……Changing the face of American Politics and giving me hope for our decendants.
Alex Scholz on 08 May 2008 at 9:56 pm #
Thanks Patroon. Much appreciated. Please drop me an email to let us know how we can get you guys press releases. We would like to keep you in the loop.
Patroon on 09 May 2008 at 1:01 am #
Alex, I’ve just sent the campaign my email address.
Patroon on 09 May 2008 at 1:09 am #
Walte Jones is the epitome what a paleo should be.
Richard C. Green on 10 May 2008 at 3:17 pm #
Here in southern central Connecticut we still have a few die-hards, like me, with their Ron Paul signs prominently displayed. NO SURRENDER.
There are no signs or stickers for McCain, despite the fact that Honest John won the State in 2000 and again this year ( blech ), in the Republican primary voting. The GOP here is in decline.
There are precious few bumper stickers for Hillary or B-rack, either.
People are numb, and with empty pockets ( gasoline is now closing in on $4.00 per gallon ), and even well-to-do upper middle class folks are keeping their luxurious boats in dry dock this spring. They’d rather pay the storage charge than try to fill their hundred-gallon tanks AND do the routine maintenance which the summer boating season requires.
The RINO-crats here in the Freestone State talk a lot of jive: the so called GOP has all but vanished in New Haven ( which is also on the verge of bankruptcy ), and so Rosa “the Red” DeLauro will once again have another cakewalk for the Third Congressional District in November.
For myself, I am content with a luxury plan that entails one dinner out at a restaurant per month and two DVD rentals on a week-end. Maybe.
The McCain campaign sent me a “letter” asking for my generous support and so I wrote — in big block letters on the reply form — 4000 dead in Iraq, not one dollar from me. And I sent it back to them so they’d get stuck with the forty-one cents postage.
My sense of things now in progress out west ?? Race riots in the L.A. urban desert, as native-born black Americans find themselves being overwhelmed by the flood of illegal migrants from Salvador and Mexico. There was an ALIPAC report on one high school there, which was in a lock-down this week after about six hundred students went into “disturbance mode,” after a brown vs. black student “scrum”.
I.e., a serious fist-fight. The neo-conservatives must be grinning like the proverbial Cheshire cat from Alice In Wonderland.