From the Charleston Gazette:
At a rally a few miles from the West Virginia border on Tuesday, Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden predicted he and Sen. Barack Obama would win West Virginia in the Nov. 4 presidential election.
According to NBC’s Mike Memoli, Biden asked the crowd in St. Clairsville, Ohio, “Which way is West-By-God-Virginia?” He then said, “I want to send a message to West Virginia — we’re going to win in West Virginia! … We’re going to shock the living devil out of y’all!”
Let’s win to send a message that Hope triumphs over Hate.
The Hate Talk Express was going to come through West Virginia.
Instead it turned into Sarah Palin’s Blow Off West Virginia Tour.
At a rally last weekend, a group of West Virginians took the front row at a Portsmouth, Ohio rally, across the Ohio River from West Virginia.
The story going around here is they shouted, “Come to West Virginia.”
Obama called back, “I’ll be there soon.”
You know what, we’re looking at a landslide of historic proportions.
Obama doesn’t need West Virginia’s five electoral votes.
But you can tell from Joe Biden’s statement, his throwing down of the gauntlet, that Obama and Biden WANT them.
You want to send a message to the country that a new day has dawned in America, you win West By God Virginia.
This is a Democratic state. The governor, four of the five Congressional caucus, the attorney general, the treasurer, the agricultural secretary, the auditor, four of the five Supreme Court justices and soon to be the secretary of state.
Dems out number Reps by nearly a 2 to 1 margin. Sure many of them are conservative Democrats. But we are the party of the Big Tent. Not the Rs, who have issued a fatwa on Christopher Buckley.
West Virginia went Democratic when many other states voted for the Republicans. Al Gore took the state for granted and we all paid a price. In 2004, with so many of our young men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan, I heard over and over canvassing that people didn’t want to change leaders in the middle of a war.
I told them they were wrong, that we needed to. But we lost.
This is an opportunity to return one of the most Democratic loyal states back into the blue column. Sure there’s some racism here – just as there is in EVERY OTHER state. But I’ve canvassed numerous African Americans here who voted for Hillary Clinton in the primary. What are we to make of them since the primary vote is what caused so many to label the state as racist?
People will inevitably say, Obama is better off spending his resources elsewhere.
Here’s what they don’t understand. Many of those surrounding states that are battleground states are filled with expatriate West Virginians. Their roots, their kin, are in West Virginia. If Obama and Biden win them over, their grandmammas and grandpappys are going to be telling them to vote for Barack Obama.
We heard over and over again that Appalachians were not ready to vote for a black candidate. What a load of bullshit!
In the worst case scenario based off the polls, we are in tossup status. ARG’s poll, the latest, showed Obama up by 8 POINTS. ARG is often disparaged for being a bad pollster. I looked it up today. ARG often was off from 3 to 5 points in Kerry’s favor in many states. 3 to 5 points consistently off. Do the math! Hell, say they were 8 points off. Hell, say they were 11 points off.
That’s tossup.
We were told over and over by the Republicans McCain would win this state by 20 points.
They swore it’d be a landslide for McCain.
This is the time, this is the state to break the backs of the rightwing movement.
I’m just a small state blogger and a foot soldier who canvasses and tells funny stories.
But I know this: When we were told this state could not be won, I had faith in my fellow West Virginians.
When we were told by 538 that the odds were 89 percent of a McCain win, I said, “Never tell me the odds.”
When we were told by the state GOP McCain would bury us, I remembered what my old football coach used to say.
And he’d say, win or lose, I don’t care as long as you’re leaving it all on the field.
With the coordinated Campaign for Change we are leaving it all on the field.
I know how we lost in landslides in 2004 presidential and congressional and 2006 congressional.
But my coach had another thing he’d tell his undersized players every Friday night on our way to a 9-1 season (F Oak Hill High School – yes I hold grudges).
He’d say, “Boys it’s not the size of the dogs in the fight that matters, it’s the size of the fight in the dogs.”
West Virginian’s Campaign for Change is bringing it.
Hillary Clinton brought it.
Joe Biden is bringing it.
And Barack Obama is bringing it.
Let’s go win this state.