Rednecks for Obama

[iheartscience]

Article about a couple of rednecks for Obama! The article''s definitely worth a read and it makes some good points! link Some content below:

"Les Spencer is an atypical Barack Obama supporter. He''s a redneck. His buddy Tony Viessman calls himself one, too. Without accessing their inner Jeff Foxworthy, they define redneck as hardworking guys who like to hunt, fish, and maybe pop a beer or two.

"I hunt squirrels, too," Spencer said, in between drags of bummed Pall Malls on Viessman''s back porch. "And I like eating turtles."

SNIP

The two retirees have traveled on their own dime to all the debates and the Democratic National Convention to try to convince doubters that Obama is redneck-friendly. "This election is too important," Viessman said."

 

[trillionaire]

Date: 10/22/2008 6:31:14 PM
Author:thing2of2
Article about a couple of rednecks for Obama! The article''s definitely worth a read and it makes some good points! link Some content below:


''Les Spencer is an atypical Barack Obama supporter. He''s a redneck. His buddy Tony Viessman calls himself one, too. Without accessing their inner Jeff Foxworthy, they define redneck as hardworking guys who like to hunt, fish, and maybe pop a beer or two.


''I hunt squirrels, too,'' Spencer said, in between drags of bummed Pall Malls on Viessman''s back porch. ''And I like eating turtles.''


SNIP


The two retirees have traveled on their own dime to all the debates and the Democratic National Convention to try to convince doubters that Obama is redneck-friendly. ''This election is too important,'' Viessman said.''

I love them! I posted a link to their website on some thread not too long ago! It made me really hopeful!

 

[iheartscience]

Date: 10/22/2008 6:43:36 PM
Author: trillionaire

Date: 10/22/2008 6:31:14 PM

Author:thing2of2

Article about a couple of rednecks for Obama! The article''s definitely worth a read and it makes some good points! link Some content below:

''Les Spencer is an atypical Barack Obama supporter. He''s a redneck. His buddy Tony Viessman calls himself one, too. Without accessing their inner Jeff Foxworthy, they define redneck as hardworking guys who like to hunt, fish, and maybe pop a beer or two.

''I hunt squirrels, too,'' Spencer said, in between drags of bummed Pall Malls on Viessman''s back porch. ''And I like eating turtles.''

SNIP

The two retirees have traveled on their own dime to all the debates and the Democratic National Convention to try to convince doubters that Obama is redneck-friendly. ''This election is too important,'' Viessman said.''

I love them! I posted a link to their website on some thread not too long ago! It made me really hopeful!

I must have missed your link, trill! I think they''re great, too! And I loved the quote from Viessman''s dad-"Any poor man who votes for a Republican is a fool."! Hahaha!

 

[trillionaire]

deleted post

 

[trillionaire]

Can I add: Racists for Obama!

From Politico...

New polling and a trickle of stories from the battleground states suggest that Sen. Barack Obama''s coalition includes one unlikely group: white voters with negative views of African-Americans.

Race has become the elephant in the room of the 2008 presidential campaign, with Obama’s prospect of becoming the first black president drawing some Americans closer to him while pushing others away. At times, the contest has slipped into a familiar dynamic of allegations of racism and outraged denial — but it''s also challenged some easy assumptions about race, racism and prejudice.

“What you see is it’s perfectly possible to hold a negative view of at least one aspect of African-Americans and yet simultaneously prefer Obama,” said Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Racial feelings are not as cut and dried — not as black and white — as people often say.”

Franklin explored those contradictions in a large, national survey taken in mid-September, when the Illinois Democratic senator''s rival, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), led in many polls and the nation’s economic woes had not yet produced a deep crisis. The poll asked voters whether they agreed with the statement that “African-Americans often use race as an excuse to justify wrongdoing." About a fifth of white voters said they “strongly agreed.” Yet among those who agreed, 23 percent said they’d be supporting Obama.

“This result is reasonable if you believe that race is not as monolithic an effect as we might easily assume,” Franklin said, noting that 22 percent of those who "strongly disagreed" said they''d be supporting McCain.

Anecdotes from across the battlegrounds suggest that there’s a significant minority of prejudiced white voters who will swallow hard and vote for the black man.

“I wouldn’t want a mixed marriage for my daughter, but I’m voting for Obama,” the wife of a retired Virginia coal miner, Sharon Fleming, told the Los Angeles Times recently.


Read more...

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/14691.html

 

[trillionaire]

FASCINATING... more:

By Politico''s Ben Smith:

I''ve been getting a lot of fascinating email on the intersection of racial bias and support for Obama since writing a story on the topic, and much of the email reflects a more nuanced picture of race in America than is often portrayed.

A reader canvassing for Obama in Southern Ohio emails "Re: the unexpected and sometimes surreal embrace of Obama by Appalachian and Southern whites," and sends in the extraordinary photo above:

The ''Lil Kentucky district in Mansfield, OH was settled by families who came north in the postwar years to take steel and automotive jobs in Ohio''s industrial heartland. While the jobs have dissipated in the last quarter century, the families have remained in place for more than generation and many still carry with them the trappings of a Southern upbringing.

In the first house I visited, a huge Confederate flag that completely filled my field of view was tacked to the living room wall. Couldn''t take my eyes off it as I launched into my standard Obama talk. The guy stopped me mid-sentence, "We''re with Obama. He''s the only one for the working man. Most of us around here are GM and GM is with Obama."

His neighbor was a postal worker. I almost missed the ceramic black lawn jockey on his porch, a relic of bygone days in many other parts of the state, but what was unmistakable was the household''s political allegiance: a "Postal Workers Back Obama" yard sign was planted on the front lawn.

 

[iheartscience]

"Mixed marriage?" Really?!!! Yikes. I guess I''ll take the racist vote, though...I''ll take anyone''s vote if it means Obama/Biden and not McCain/Palin in the White House!

People are terrible...and they will believe anything! Today I placed an order with a vendor on the phone (I''ve spoken with him about 3 or 4 times, tops, and I''ve never even met him in person!) and he mentioned something about the election...and was beating around the bush, but I had a feeling he liked McCain. Sure enough, he told me he''s voting for McCain, and he told me that Obama hangs with terrorists.

I was a little speechless, but I told him that was ridiculous and we''d have to agree to disagree. Once I recovered I also told him that since he was in NY and NY would go Democrat, I wouldn''t hold it against him that he was voting for McCain since his vote wouldn''t matter!

 

[iheartscience]

Whoa...the new post is blowing my mind! How...? Why...?

 

[AGBF]

Date: 10/23/2008 1:46:43 AM
Author: thing2of2
Whoa...the new post is blowing my mind! How...? Why...?

"The new post" being the one that says that people with a confederate flag or a black lawn jockey support Obama? If so, all I can say is that sometimes change comes slowly. I find it fascinating that it is coming this way. People who once flew a confederate flag, or who still do, will apparently be voting for a black man this year. People who used to sport a black lawn jockey, or who still do, will be voting for a black man to be president this year. In time, perhaps those people will be ready for mixed marriage, too. Who knows? No one will ever make them marry black people if they don't want to.


Deborah

 

[iheartscience]

Date: 10/23/2008 8:19:44 AM
Author: AGBF

Date: 10/23/2008 1:46:43 AM

Author: thing2of2

Whoa...the new post is blowing my mind! How...? Why...?

''The new post'' being the one that says that people with a confederate flag or a black lawn jockey support Obama? If so, all I can say is that sometimes change comes slowly. I find it fascinating that it is coming this way. People who once flew a confederate flag, or who still do, will apparently be voting for a black man this year. People who used to sport a black lawn jockey, or who still do, will be voting for a black man to be president this year. In time, perhaps those people will be ready for mixed marriage, too. Who knows? No one will ever make them marry black people if they don''t want to.

Deborah

Good point, Deb. I come from a rural area and have seen plenty of confederate flags there. A girl I went to high school with had a jacket that was basically a huge confederate flag. If Obama can get people to rethink their racism it''s a definite good thing.

 

[trillionaire]

Thursday, Oct. 23, 2008 15:35 EDT
President of GOP group resigns over racist image of Obama

You may remember from last week the story of the California Republican group getting some unwanted attention for including in their newsletter an image of Barack Obama on a food stamp, surrounded by fried chicken, watermelon and other racist stereotypes. Well, the president of the group has now resigned.

Diane Fedele apologized last week "to anyone who was offended" by the cartoon, but said there was no racist intent involved in its distribution, telling a local newspaper, "I never connected. It was just food to me. It didn''t mean anything else." In a letter she sent Wednesday of this week to her group''s members, she apologized again, saying she''d shown "poor judgment and lack of insight and sensitivity."

But she again said there was no racist intent, and defended the message, the AP reports. "The point, that has been lost in the subsequent discussion over images, was that Obama will ''take from the rich and give to the poor'' and that we ALL would be buying food with his ''Obama Welfare Dollars.'' An ideological statement, not a racial one," Fedele wrote.

Fedele was the president of Chaffey Community Republican Women, Federated. State Republican Party officials have distanced themselves from the group, saying it''s not directly responsible to the party, and a spokesman condemned the use of the cartoon.

One other interesting tidbit from the AP''s report on this: It appears that the image is actually originally the product of a Democrat, Tim Kastelein, who says he intended it to poke fun at conservative pundits afraid of Obama.
― Alex Koppelman

 

[trillionaire]

Murtha Race Tightens After ''Racist,'' ''Redneck'' Remarks
Rep. John Murtha finds himself in a statistical tie in his re-election bid as Western Pennsylvanians take issue with being called "racist" by their congressman.

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/10/23/murtha-race-tightens-racist-redneck-remarks/