Posted on 11/24/2007 12:47:57 AM PST by Zakeet
They call it flyover country. These are the parts of the United States that the pundits and prognosticators of American politics see just occasionally - and usually from several thousand feet. It is a land where people shop at Wal-Mart, eat at Dairy Queen, work two jobs to make ends meet and have a Bible at home. They can decide on their vote with the help of talk radio, cable television and the internet - or from a combination of rumour, scraps of hard information and gut feeling.
[Snip]
It is in flyover country where the 2008 presidential election will be won and lost.
[Snip]
So is Hillary Clinton the "polarising" figure we hear so much of in the media? Can only a Democrat win in 2008? Is America ready to elect its first female or black president? Has the letdown of the Bush years left the average Joe Schmoe yearning for the Clintons?
With a year to go before the country votes for its 44th president, The Daily Telegraph embarked on its "Crossing America" project to find out. The answers that Julian Simmonds, photographer and videographer, and I got were often surprising. They provide little comfort for Mrs Clinton but not much more for any other politician.
[Snip]
Mrs Clinton might be the frontrunner in the polls, but almost everywhere we went people questioned her candidacy. Many stated bluntly that they did not want a woman in charge.
[Snip]
A Vietnam veteran in Arizona and a Florida gun-shop owner were among those who made crude jokes about America "going to war every 30 days" under a female president. We never brought up Bill Clinton's sexual dalliances, but many ordinary Americans did. "She couldn't keep her own home together, so how can we trust her to manage America?"
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
If this reporter understands the American voting public I did not see any evidence of it in the article. \
What I saw was a reporter who came to this country with a preconceived notion of what kind of people occupied “Fly Over Country”.
This article wreaks of condescension.
This reporter sought out the type of individual that fit his vision of the Midwest voter or he decided not to write about any thoughtful voters that he happened upon.
Yes he may accurately describe the common opinions of most people in the middle states but you must notice that he does not mention any single individual that he spoke to that had a substantive comment of why he/she would vote or not vote for any candidate. All he mentions are people with very shallow views.
This reporter thinks that the majority of Mid-Americans are rubes and wrote this article accordingly.
Well I was making a little fun of the market research style of modern politics but since you want to take this seriously;
I really think that politician do understand why people prefer conservatism to liberalism.
But that does not and can not change how people get elected to office.
A politician in order to get elected has to try to appeal to the maximum number of voters they possibly can.
The reason someone like Ron Paul will never get elected to office of the Presidency is because he has somewhat fringe views that he does not make any effort to soften or hide.
Hillary Clinton also has some fringe views on the other end of the spectrum as Paul but she does soften those views and down right obfuscates on her true nature as so she does have a chance at winning election.
The reason that market research, opinion polling and focus group techniques are used in political campaigns is because they work.
It is all about winning.
Maybe you are confusing understanding with being converted to the cause.
Come to my neck of the woods. I can show you scores of Hillary!™ supporters.
More, if we leave the block...
It’s time for all the Clinton corruption going back to their early Arkansas political days to be investigated, exposed, and justice be done. America has had several bad Presidents (you know the names), but a criminal and truly evil one would be disastrous for us, our children, and grandchildren. We owe better to our ancestors and the American patriots that came before us.
Agree. The only good thing about the article is the fantastic TITLE and the fact that most Americans despise politicians - all of them.
“Maybe you are confusing understanding with being converted to the cause.”
Of course not. The elites by definition believe they are right. They are characterized by their arrogance; they cannot be converted. With enough information they can, however, fake a conversion, at least long eonugh to get elected, which is what focus groups and polling are all about.
Who will investigate is the problem. The Bush justice department that has already let the Clintons and Sandy Berger off the hook? Woodward and Bernstein?
Amen. This is, by the way, National Bible Week. It would be great if in every home where there is a Bible in this country - and in the world - we would all actually READ it - some each day going forward - I believe this country and the world would be turned upside down -—— as it was when this nation was founded.
Not because the Bible is some “magic book” - but because it is the Living Word of the Living God, and is effective in transforming lives which, in turn, transform families, communities, and countries.
Happy National Bible Week!
DITTO from one of the “little people” out here in flyover country
“I watched a short bit of a Jeff Foxworthy (and company) show last night. He had a oneliner that went like this:
I believe...if you can’t say something nice about somebody....you must be talking about Hillary Clinton.”
ROFL - this is a keeper. Thanks. But Jeff better watch his back. Queen Heinous does NOT tolerate jokes about her royal person.
I can only watch people and how they behave to come to this conclusion. To date only 5 people have admitted to me directly that they will not vote for a woman for President no matter who she is. FWIW two of them were women.
Inside every persons head is a world.
He did. But he didn't ask about that because he didn't want to know. The dirty little secret that is no secret, is that Hillary is a devout Marxist. By (falsely) claiming that we have a problem with her sex they can avoid the losing proposition of trying to sell her Marxist ideals and goals.
Plus, the left simply can't stand to admit that conservatives have absolutely no problem with women in power. It's crooks, commies and socialists we don't like.
Yet George Bush is reviled, even though he is fighting the war against Islamo-fascists who actually do treat women like livestock, only worse.
We’re not sure Hitlery is a woman.
I heard Rush say just a couple days ago, John “the Breck Girl” Edwards is more woman than Hillary.
True enough-but sadly, few people are willing to see the truth about islam , even now...They want to believe it’s a peaceful religion “hijacked by a few extremists”, which is total BS.
They sound like the elite Europeans...
...combination of rumour, scraps of hard information and gut feeling...
The Telegraph underwent a change of ownership within the last decade. Like so many other European (and particular British) institutions, its tone went from "conservative" to socialist-elitist. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, their Washington correspondent in Clinton years, was allowed free reign to criticize the Clinton White House. Contrast that to this reporter, who appears to be walking on egg shells when HRC is the subject at hand.
To the best of my knowledge, Clinton critic Evans-Pritchard was reassigned to Brussels, de facto capital of European socialism and internationalism. Retribution by the newspaper ownership, perhaps.
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