Obama's Red-State Prospects Unclear Democrat's Support May Have Limits

[Little Star]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/23/AR2008022302180.html?nav=rss_email/components


For Democrats desperate to reclaim the White House, the numbers have been tantalizing.

This Story
Obama's Red-State Prospects Unclear
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In winning Tuesday's primary in the key swing state of Wisconsin, Sen. Barack Obama drew support from tens of thousands of Republicans and independents. He pulled off the same feat in his landslide victory in the Virginia primary the week before, suggesting he could win the state in November. In South Carolina, he had more votes than the top two Republican contenders put together; in Kansas, his total topped the overall GOP turnout.

All along, Obama has argued that he can redraw the political map for Democrats by turning out unprecedented numbers of young voters and African Americans, and by attracting independents and even Republicans with his message of national reconciliation. But the picture emerging of his appeal in GOP strongholds and in swing states, even as he widens his delegate lead over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), is more complex than his claim to broad popularity in "red state" America would have one believe.

Obama (Ill.) posted big wins over Clinton in caucuses in Plains and Mountain states such as Kansas, Nebraska and Idaho, but Republicans in those states scoff at the suggestion that victories in the small universe of Democrats there translate into strength in November. In Tennessee and Oklahoma, Obama lost by wide margins to Clinton, who lived in nearby Arkansas. He narrowly won the primary in the swing state of Missouri, but did so thanks to the state's solidly Democratic cities, losing its more rural, and more conservative, areas to Clinton.

"If he's the nominee . . . he'll start off with a good urban base, but he'll have to get out and develop these other areas," said former Tennessee governor Ned McWherter, a Democrat and Clinton supporter.

[ClassWarrior]

1. Ahhh, the almighty Rape-Publicans, marching in lockstep to decide our nominee...

Resistance is futile...

:rofl:

NGU.

[boston bean]

2. ahhhh the befuddled brainwashed bo supporter not able to handle the truth.

[KittyWampus]

5. Ah, the moronic Clinton supporters, happy to buy GOP spin. And stupid enough to think the 17-State

strategy would be good enough to win an election or effect any meaningful change.

I wouldn't have included the words "moronic & stupid" but really just wanted to illustrate how unnecessary throwing insults is.

That article quotes mainly GOP'ers.

[ClassWarrior]

7. Ahhh, I attack the Rape-Publicans, and you attack me. 'Nuff said.

NGU.

[madrchsod]

6. BARACK OBAMA BUILT YOU A ROBOT

[ClassWarrior]

8. I caricature a handful of Rape-Publican extremists as Borgs...

...and you trash one of OUR candidates and your fellow Dems who support him? Pitiful.

(They ARE your fellow Dems, aren't they?...)

NGU.

[KittyWampus]

3. the idiot Clinton supporter must not have seen exit polls. Obama's support wasn't just urban.

"The campaign points to Virginia as proof that Obama can win white voters in red states. Exit polls show that he won a slight majority of white voters, not just in Northern Virginia but also in the Richmond suburbs and parts of the Shenandoah Valley and Southside."

[HeraldSquare212]

4. Wow, he'll have to work to win red states? What a surprise.