"Rural economic woes may provide opening for Obama
BELLEVILLE, Pa. (AP) — The folks in this picturesque mountain community with red barns and Amish buggies have been voting overwhelmingly Republican in national elections for decades.
But tough economic times in Mifflin County and in rural areas all around the country have created possible openings for Democrat Barack Obama.
President Bush won nearly 70 percent of the county's vote in both 2000 and 2004, but the standard of living here has declined steadily during his administration.
The farm equipment factory that employed 500 workers here is closing. So is the milk plant. Farmers are facing skyrocketing feed and fertilizer costs, and gas prices are squeezing household budgets of those who now have to drive elsewhere for work.
Republican Barbara Dettloff, 72, a retired bartender from Racine, Ohio, an Appalachian river town with about 750 people, voted for Bush in 2004 and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in this year's Republican primary. She's voting for Obama in November because "I think he's nice and I think he's sincere in what he says."
But, she added, "I'm probably the only person in this town that does." Indeed, many of her friends have told her they're either not voting for Obama or are staying home. "They just won't vote for him because he's black," Dettloff said.
Ya here that, AmeriKa!!! The Zionist media says you are a bunch of racists!!!
Some other rural voters like Carol Fuller, 45, of Lewistown, blame the Republican Party for their economic troubles but aren't ready to switch to a Democrat like Obama. She accused the Republican Party of price gouging at the pump, mismanaging the Iraq war and failing to address health care. She said she would have voted for Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton because she thought a woman could clean up Washington, but, as for Obama, "I just don't like him."
She plans to vote for McCain. Great; one of Clinton's Bitter Bitches!
Another farmer, Robert Thompson, 58, a Democrat and retired state worker from Millheim who raises cattle and hogs, said he still hasn't gotten over Obama's comments at a private San Francisco fundraiser that small-town voters in Pennsylvania are bitter and "cling to guns or religion." He said he's considering not voting for president because he doesn't like McCain, either.
Oh, so the DEMOCRAT doesn't even like Obama, huh?
Why do I get the feeling Hitlery is going to steal the nomination?
If many rural voters follow the route Thompson is considering, it could hurt McCain in critical swing states, said Terry Madonna, a pollster and professor at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster.
How does a DEMOCRAT NOT VOTING hurt McCain?
PFFFFFTT!
I'm sick of BULLSHIT passing itself off as "news analysis," folks!!
The AmeriKan MSM is just ONE, LONG, LYING OPERATION, isn't it?
"McCain will have problems getting a high turnout among those voters unless he finds some way to identify with them, some way to make them think that, A, he's not connected to Bush, and B, his economic plan is superior to Obama's," Madonna said.
It looked like it didn't really matter above, so WTF?
He also needs to turn the conversation away from the economy, Madonna said, but "it's tougher to do that when times are bad." Mifflin is one of nearly 150 rural counties where the median household income has dropped by more than 10 percent since 1999, more than three times the national decline, according to an analysis by The Associated Press.
That could make a difference in traditionally Republican rural areas come November. In Ohio in 2004, for example, John Kerry might have won the state and the presidency had he won just 45 percent of the rural vote. As it was, Bush carried Ohio's rural voters by an almost 2-to-1 margin, according to exit polls.
Yup, but those "exit polls" were not good enough on election night!!!
Of course, shit-headed Amurkns have forgotten that by now, right, MSM?
So you can push damnable myths as truth!!!
And not all rural counties are hurting. The median household income improved during the Bush administration in many rural counties near metropolitan areas. But for counties like Mifflin, the recent economic decline is just a continuation of a trend that's lasted decades.
Tara Davidson, 36, a single mother and hair dresser from nearby Unionville, said she worries about what opportunities will be available for her 15-year-old son, who is already working to help out with their expenses. But she's not sure she'll even vote in November.
"I'm considering it, but I don't want any of them," Davidson said. "What if they get in there and make it worse?"
Like doing what, bringing ina DRAFT for your boy?
--more--"
