Rural voters in swing states give Republican John McCain a ten-point lead over Barack Obama. Half say selection of Gov. Palin increased the likelihood they'll vote Republican.
Time Magazine's Joe Klein writes today about the "myth of America." Actually, it's more the myth of rural America, of good people living in small towns sprinkled across the countryside. How Klein knows people believe in this myth is hard to know, but.... "Except that's not really true," Klein writes. "We haven't been a nation of small towns for nearly a century. It is the suburbanites and city dwellers who do the fighting and hourly-wage work now, and the corporations who grow our food. But (Sarah) Palin's embrace of small-town values is where her hold on the national imagination begins."
Klein says this myth is a product of Reagan Republicanism made more important this year by the race of the Democratic nominee. "Barack Obama could not exist in the small-town America that Reagan fantasized," Klein writes. Obama, in fact, represents the way of life that "displaced Main Street America." How could one guy know so much, a reader might ask?
Anyway, Democrats lack a good myth, Klein contends. And small town Americans are confused, he laments. He writes (in a final bit of condescension meant to be analysis): "They live in a place...where myths are more potent than the hope of getting past the dour realities they face each day." Jeez....
More than seven out of ten votes are in the cities, but the two candidates have been spending a large amount of time in rural communities. Tuesday was Lebanon day — with McCain in Lebanon, Ohio, and Obama in Lebanon, Virginia (above). Are they telling us by their schedules that, again, this election will be decided in rural America?
Sen. Barack Obama turned out 2,000 people to a high school gym, which is a six times greater than the 329 voters who supported him in Russell County, Virginia, in the Democratic primary against Hillary Clinton. Obama said he supported greater use of coal. "Clean-coal technology is something that can make America energy independent," he said.
Obama was also endorsed by bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley. Sounds good, but Stanley also endorsed John Kerry and John Edwards. And Stanley lost two runs for local office in the 1970s. So while Ralph is undefeated in the music world, in politics, he's 0 for 4.
Ojibwes from a VFW post in Minnesota helped open the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. But after they left the stage, there wasn't much left for Native Americans to see.
The reaction to the nomination of Gov. Sarah Palin to be a candidate for vice president is a reminder that "geography matters," writes Jim Gimpel, on the very fine Patchwork Nation site. Gimpel continues:
Geography matters in politics because candidates are evaluated not just according to who they are, but also on the basis of where they're from. People tend to be more favorable to candidates who are from familiar places and less favorable to those who are from places unknown. Thus, fair or not, the place that somebody calls home can prove to be an advantage or disadvantage.
Gimpel, a Daily Yonder friend, writes that "imagery in television and movies depicts rural people as being unsophisticated, heavily accented, and semiliterate. They are frequently shown working the land or engaging in related rural occupations "“ with it often implied that they're not smart enough to make a living in a big city." Or in national politics??
Native Americans blessed the Pepsi Center, carried the flag and sang the national anthem. Meanwhile, the Green Zone in Iraq may be safer than some reservations.
The Roanoke (Virginia) Times asks this week, "Does Obama have Appalachian appeal?" The paper puts together a package of material, including a map of past presidential election results by county. There are also some short videos on people, issues and politics. The paper visits several communities in the mountainous southwest corner of the state, where Sen. Barack Obama lost badly to Hillary Clinton. (See Trammel, Virginia, above.)
"Appalachia, ideologically, is at war with itself," said Stephen Mooney, who teaches at the Appalachian Studies Program at nearby Virginia Tech. "Broad-based assumptions give way to a very complex reality: Co-existing simultaneously you have a deep-set conservatism and a deep-set liberalism. Co-existing simultaneously you have a region that has rebelled against American political and economic ideologies and a region that has probably the most deeply felt sense of patriotism than any other place in the nation."
A poll of rural Americans for the Progressive Farmer magazine found John McCain holding a 50-34 advantage over Barack Obama 90 days before the election. In the poll, conducted by Zogby International, 16% said they were unsure of who they would vote for or planned to vote for another candidate. The poll of 3,000 rural adults found that 17 percent said they planned on switching parties from their vote in 2004.
The poll was taken in late May, the same time of a Yonder rural poll that put McCain ahead of Obama 50-41. The Zogby poll asked about Senate and House races, finding that in these more local contests Republicans led Democrats 47-40 among rural residents.
The Progressive Farmer is conducting an interactive poll that allows readers to match their preferences with other readers.