I'm just telling you like it is, man! I was born and raised there and know exactly what the people there (at least in Southwest Virginia, Southern West Virginia, East Tennessee, and Eastern Kentucky) say and think, when reporter reporters hovering around looking for a sound bite. (My mom's family arrived in 1642 and my dad's in 1682)
That Hillary got 90% of the vote throughout this whole region during the Rat primary should speak volumes about what is really going on there with the Democratic vote. It's not about Liberal or Conservative, or even Republican or Democrat. It's about not voting for Obama there because he's black and was a member of Wright's virulent church.
Just wait until election day, and you will see that McCain will win that region by AT LEAST 70%.
I define it rather narrowly such as people who not only believe in racial superiority, but would implement laws to institutionalize it if given the chance. Robert Byrd, when he was grand dragon of the KKK more than five decades ago would certainly fit the bill then and possibly now. Rev. Wright's followers, even more than Rev. Wright himself, would fit the bill. I'm not convinced that Rev. Wright himself actually believes the crap he preaches, he's just found it to be a good business model given the idiots who will lap it up.
I'm convinced that the average voter of this area wouldn't only support a candidate who happened to be black, they would embrace him. Look at the solid majority Michael Steele polled in the Maryland panhandle if you doubt me.
What this voter isn't, however, is one which can easily be intimidated by calling them racist. They've been talked down to so much, they really don't give a rat's a** what the rest of the country thinks about them.
Do you recall the Roger Coleman case back in the early 1990's? The national and even international media painted this as a case where a bunch of ignorant hillbillies were going to send an innocent man to the electric chair because he was so articulate he didn't fit in to the community.
Well, I've traveled extensively nearly the full length of the Appalachians from Chattanooga to western New York. There are few places in the country which have more colleges per capita. I do not recall a single town of 5000 or more which didn't have at least one institution of higher learning. Yet, the stereotype and inbreeding jokes persist.
The bottom line is that most of them don't see B.H. Obama as a black man, but as a smarmy, self-important big city snob who looks down on them and has thinner actual qualifications to be president than the average mayor in one of those 5000 plus small towns near the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Obama's biggest weakness is among Appalachian protestants, and elderly blue collar Catholics. Its not just "anti-elitism" because these same people (particularly the latter) had no problem voting for Gore or Kerry. The racial element (especially among those with memories of the black migration to "their" neighborhoods and the riots) is very real.