Posted on 09/19/2010 11:12:20 AM PDT by Kaslin
BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. – For as long as this country has existed, this charming Eastern Panhandle town has thrived, thanks initially to its abundant mineral water and its proximity to the nation’s capital.
It was the country’s first official resort town. George Washington not only slept here, he bathed here. He came first as a teenage surveyor and later as president, seeking the healing effects of the medicinal springs.
Yet thriving is tough in this economy. Just ask Shannon DeLaunden, who has been out of work for over a year.
A health-care worker who voted for the first time in 2008, when she supported President Barack Obama, she voices one of the problems Democrats now face: “I won’t vote this November.”
Although still inspired by the charm and promise of Obama, she can’t think of a way she has benefited from his policies.
That’s a problem the president may face in another election year. But right now, it is exactly why Gov. Joe Manchin, a very popular West Virginia Democrat, faces a tough election for U.S. Senate against Republican businessman John Raese.
A recent survey by Rasmussen Reports shows Manchin up only six points, 48 percent to 42 percent, heading toward November's special election to fill the late Robert Byrd's Senate term. A month earlier, Manchin was at 51 percent, Raese at 35.
Much of Manchin’s problem lies in the town he wants to call home – Washington, D.C. As soon as he seeks to go there, he morphs in voters’ minds into an Obama Democrat.
Once known as Bath, Berkeley Springs thrives on tourism: The Potomac River flows just to its north, and the town lies in a valley surrounded by the Cacapon and Sleepy Creek mountains.
Tom Grinder, a Baltimore transplant who owns Portals, a New Age shop in the heart of town, says he is holding his own in this economy … “barely.”
An independent voter, Grinder liked Manchin as governor but hasn’t decided whether to vote for him this fall.
He winces when he realizes Manchin’s former general counsel and hand-picked seat-holder in the U.S. Senate, Carte Goodwin, gave Democrats the vote needed to move a spending bill.
“That changes everything,” Grinder says bluntly. “Manchin essentially showed me how he would have voted on spending, and possibly a lot of other things that I opposed with this administration.”
Welcome to the land of the classic Jacksonian Democrats, who vote God, guns and country. They are largely descendants of Scots-Irish immigrants who have an inherent distrust of government. They may not show up for a protest but they do vote their consciences and their pocketbooks.
Given the current political climate, it is almost as if the rest of the country has embraced its inner West Virginia.
This state’s politics has created an awkward situation for Democrats. Not only has the Senate race emerged as a possible problem but so have those for two of the state’s three U.S. House seats. All of the Democrats’ national committees are spending money here in a year in which they are spread thin by a discontented, disconnected electorate.
West Virginia’s First Congressional District saw longtime Rep. Alan Mollohan defeated in a primary by fellow Democrat and state senator Mike Oliverio. Republican David McKinley ran a strong primary campaign and presents a solid opportunity for a GOP gain in a district that McCain carried with 57 percent of the vote in 2008.
Little attention was paid to the Third District’s race until news that longtime Rep. Nick Rahall, a Democrat, used congressional stationery to ask a judge for leniency for his son in a 2005 robbery case. GOP candidate Spike Maynard may capitalize on that but also is making a case that Rahall has not done enough to stop the Obama administration’s “War on Coal.”
Chuck Wheeler is a former Capitol Hill Democratic staffer who owns Berkeley Springs’ Fairfax Coffeehouse and Mt. Laurel Gallery, an upscale boutique specializing in jewelry, artwork and clothing by American craftsman.
Wheeler thinks Manchin has no problem, probably because Wheeler has no Manchin problem. He says the stimulus package did a great job but admits the economy is bad and so is business. He says he loves the health-care bill but admits he has no idea what’s in it or if his employees will benefit from it.
Frustrated by his own admissions as he walks through his beautiful but very-empty gallery, Wheeler says, “Well, I think a lot of the reason why people don’t like Obama is racism.”
Later, in his coffee shop, he wonders if that is the real reason.
If the dems have lost the Baltimore transplant, new age demographic, they have no hope.
People need to stop voting the way Pappy and Gran-Pappy and Great-Gran-Pappy did and think for themselves. Today's Demcrat Party is Anti-God, Anti-Guns, Anti-Country. Anybody who has an "inherent distrust of government" would not entrust a Democrat with any elected position. If they are "voting their consciences" then how can they vote for baby-killing Democrats?
The author cannot square that circle.
Nothing more needs to be said.
“A woman who voted for the first time...liked Obama’s charm and promise...”
What a poor reason to vote for someone! So now she won’t vote at all in the forthcoming election.
That is ridiculous. People like this should be banned from voting until they educate themselves
Excellent point
yes she can :)
Prince Hamlet clones on qualudes.
Note the RAT who calls anybody who doesn’t love Obama “racist”. That card is worn out.
At first I thought people should have to take a test before they vote having to know the issues and what that person stands for forcing the candidate to state his position. But people cheat. So I think at each voting place there should be posters up on the wall stating each candidate’s positions. People can order from McDonald’s menus, let them order their candidates. Just venting.
I was thinking the same thing. This guy and the former Dem staffer who’s “gallery” is empty are watching their businesses die due to hope & change. The Balt “new age” transplant gets it.
Both of these people moved to WV with their airy fairy craft shops. Probably semi-retirement businesses which may fail due to you know who.
The Isl*mic mole is screwing seniors and baby boomers *SO* much. Many of the idiots still have no clue.
“He says he loves the health-care bill but admits he has no idea what’s in it or if his employees will benefit from it.”
Nothing more needs to be said.
***********
To paraphrase Nasty Pelosi, when they enforce the bill he will find out what is in it.
Interesting article, Salena. I’d like to see more in the press from your region about the “War On Coal.”
Interesting concept! Since the gubermint demands mandatory nutritional statements to be posted in fast food restaurants, thinking the sheeple are too dumb to figure it out, you apply the principle of ju jitsu and bring the concept to the polling place.
Despite that, the social conservatives here on FR think it's -me-, the economic conservative, who is the threat to America.
The Co. Registrar of voters does mail out a "Voter's Guide" prior to the election, so people can study the candidates and their issues (but candidates must submit statements to be included). Not all voters read those mailed guides, though.
Got is exactly backwards. The Social Conservatives are the core of the base that support your political vision. Every election they show up and vote for whom ever you "Fiscal Conservatives" demand we vote for. They showed up for your boy McCain in 2008.
YOUR side, on the other hand, trys every election season to jettison the social conservatives off the bus. Both Barbour and Daniles are trying it this year.
Politically stupid the lot of you. You win elections by building coalitions of interests, not by trying to jettison half your base.
Come on SatinDoll,
Obammy has a nice smile.
How many old ladies voted for that alone?
I suggest you check my posting history, in fact I would welcome it.
Any FR on which I am a McCain supporter is almost certainly a "Bizzaro Free Republic" in some alternate universe.
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