Posted on 02/12/2012 4:44:56 PM PST by Kaslin
During a drive between the Mon Valley towns of McKeesport and Elizabeth, a man named Ray was overheard calling into a local radio station to talk about the subject of the hour: November's presidential election.
The first thing he said is that he is a Democrat who voted for Barack Obama in 2008. Pressed by the talk-show host, he said he would not vote for Obama this time.
The rest of Ray's answer was not unique or remarkable: Yes, he is a union member. Yes, he wanted Obama to succeed. And, yes, he is very disappointed after giving the president more than enough chances to prove he can lead.
Ray said he had finally given up.
It is a story heard over and over across the country, one that began not long after Obama took office in 2009 and followed a series of heavy-handed moves such as appointing policy "czars" to avoid Senate confirmation fights and a lack of transparency with the press and the public (a list too long to elaborate) despite vows to the contrary.
Stimulus signs that dotted highways after a trillion-dollar federal spending spree became signs to mock when the economy failed to improve -- and guys like Ray began to detach.
Following the messy passage of Obama's health-care bill in 2010, the disconnect between him and Americans escalated -- evidenced by a massive sweep of Democrats from state legislatures, governors' offices and the U.S. House of Representatives.
Obama will find no redemption with Pennsylvania Democrats such as Ray. Yet that does not necessarily mean that, come January, he will not be sworn in again.
The data from a yearlong measure of his approval rating, conducted by Gallup in Pennsylvania, aren't promising: 45 percent approve of his performance, 48 percent disapprove.
While Obama campaigners salivate over the primary battle among Republicans Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul, they fail to realize that the GOP's family feud will heal more easily than did Democrats' in 2008.
Independents and Jacksonian Democrats who supported Hillary Clinton grudgingly came over to Obama after their primaries but never felt he was their guy; they were bruised by his treatment of their hero, Bill Clinton, and Hillary.
Back then, Hillary's fatal problem was simple: She couldn't hit hard on Obama's experience and qualifications, or question how he would fulfill his lofty promises -- or even request something as routine as the release of his college records.
Why? Because the disciplined, brilliantly manipulative Obama team and an adoring press would have cried "Racism!"
Those wounds have not healed among Democrats who feel they did not receive in Obama what they would have received in Hillary.
Obama needs Pennsylvania to win re-election. Yet his Electoral College calculus is complicated by his failure to poll well among Jacksonian voters (mostly rural or blue-collar whites) and worsened by his mandate that religious institutions such as Catholic hospitals -- whose objections he sought to mollify on Friday -- provide contraception to employees.
Such government intervention does not sit well with many voters in Pennsylvania, Ohio and other critical, Catholic-rich Midwestern states. Catholic Democrats may lean left on social-justice issues -- but don't try to tell their priests, parishes or hospitals what to do about contraception and abortion.
Even the class-based populist attacks that Obama emphasizes in his political rhetoric, traditionally thought to appeal to Jacksonian white voters, are falling on deaf ears this time around. He is polling the worst with those very voters -- and his rhetoric may repel the professional white voters with whom he has always done especially well.
As the election draws nearer, Pennsylvania no doubt will be the key to the political world. Its microcosm of voters -- ranging from rich-gentry whites who shifted to Obama in 2008, to somewhat more downscale Jacksonian whites who shifted to Republicans in 2010 -- will be at the center of attention.
For Obama to win here, his coalition will need to maximize the minority vote, keep single women and the youth vote firmly in his corner, eke out a win with gentry whites, split the independent vote and hold down the losses among Jacksonian whites.
That is going to be a problem for him, with the loss of the Rays in this state.
I wonder if having Rick Santorum on the ticket would help in Pennsylvania? He lost by a lot in 2006 but perhaps the local voters like the idea of one of their own in the White House.
We told Ray.
We told him the Muslim didn’t have experience.
We showed him the spiteful hateful racist Curch the man went to for 20 years.
We asked for his records then, but the Media helped him hide them, even as they still do.
But Ray and these other people insisted that Obama could heal racial wounds(boy did that go wrong)that Obama was well-spoken and clean. They listened to one speech and had an orgasm.
Now many people like Ray have seen the debt this guy has put on us, they are getting a first look at the travesty of Obamacare, they have seen his racist Attorney general,They are getting ready to turn on the lights to higher energy bills gasoline will be $4.00 soon and stiil a lot of Rays havent gotten the message.
eke out a win with gentry whites...
Are there no gentry blacks?
Jacksonian blacks?
Why are only white labels used?
Some people just never learn
As of last week, Rick was the highest polling GOP candidate in PA. Previously it was Newt. Rick lost the state in a very bad year against a PA legacy. All of the right wingers I know here are Santorum fans and generally say they are going to vote for him if he is still running by the time we have the Primary. Our Primary is so late we generally don’t get to decide anything.
-——Are there no gentry blacks?——
None.
We learned from Coming to America that blacks have royalty. There is a subclass of “ I marched with martin” and another sub class of rappers
I left out that most are just ordinary folks
Pittsburgh - Steeler country. They worship Baraq because the owner is his biggest booster.
My friend has one of those stickers. She had an Obama-Biden sticker previously. She worked on Obama’s inauguration and will be working toward his re-election. She still thinks he can do no wrong. Sad. A normally very bright woman and a devout Methodist. But still, she worships the devil.
Rick lost in 2006 to a guy who ran as a conservative (pro-life, pro-gun) democrat in a bad year for republicans.
This year he’ll be running against a liberal, anti-gun, anti life democrat.
“I drive through Pittsburgh every morning and night”.
I pity you-some of the worst traffic I’ve ever seen!
I made 7 trips there between March 2010 and May 2011 and didn’t dare speak my mind about Obummer. By the time of my last couple of trips, people were increasingly vocal in their criticism.
Just sayin’...
Good point; PA hasn’t had a president since James Buchanan.
As far as I can tell, Catholics actually voted for Mclame over President O in the 2008 Pa election, 52-48, one of the few states where he did. Here’s one article I found on that.
“In Pennsylvania, Obama won 55 percent of the vote and McCain 44 percent, but Catholics favored McCain by 52 percent to 48 percent.
What distinguishes those states, Gray noted, is that in each at least one bishop issued statements that leaned strongly toward telling voters they should vote only for candidates of the party that supports overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion virtually on demand.”
From here:
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0805649.htm
I recall seeing that again after the election in 2008, but not from here. I hope it is true. If it is true, this later thing is bigger than the bishop’s warnings in 2008, it is in the media more, and more bishops are upset. He’s even got Catholic dem pundits upset, which is an amazing feat. I think the majority of bishops actually said something or released something.
Freegards
I have it down to a science. I travel from northwest of the airport to East Liberty -- about 35 miles one way. Usually the longest I wait in traffic is about 15 minutes. I never go though the tunnel.
I am originally from Coraopolis. Lived there years ago.
We’re going down to Pittsburgh (from Indiana County) on Tuesday. Mr S has to have a pacemaker put in. We travel rte 28 from Kittanning. I hate that drive......
As far as Barack backing the Steelers - All of Western Pa is Steeler country, whether lib or conservative. It was that way long before Obama came along. Obama’s just an annoyance! Remember that Rush Limbaugh is a big Steeler fan as well!
Because blacks in PA, whether working-class, middle-class or upper-class, and whether from Philly, Pittsburgh or anywhere in between, vote 90%-95% Democrat. Black voters, as a group, aren’t what one would call swing voters.
I look forward to the day in which blacks cast their votes base on their own values and economic interest, like the rest of voters do, but, sadly, that won’t be the case in 2012, particularly with Obama running for reelection against a white guy.
Does not mean it cannot happen, but beware. These fickle voters may yet again do the same thing...
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