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#101 |
Blue Crack Addict
Join Date: Nov 2002
Posts: 28,459
Local Time: 09:07 AM
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#102 |
Blue Crack Distributor
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: In a dry and waterless place
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IMO, he gets far too much credit for this. The fact is, the political, economic and social climate in that region was ready for it, and it would have happened regardless of who was in power. He just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
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#103 |
Blue Crack Addict
Join Date: Nov 2002
Posts: 28,459
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AFP
Rednecks for Obama' want to bridge yawning culture gap by Michael Mathes Thu Oct 9, 9:50 AM ET When Barack Obama's campaign bus made a swing through Missouri in July, the unlikeliest of supporters were waiting for him -- or rather two of them, holding the banner: "Rednecks for Obama." In backing the first African-American nominee of a major party for the US presidency, the pair are on a grassroots mission to bridge a cultural gap in the United States and help usher their preferred candidate into the White House. Tony Viessman, 74, and Les Spencer, 60, got politically active last year when it occurred to them there must be other lower income, rural, beer-drinking, gun-loving, NASCAR race enthusiasts fed up with business as usual in Washington. Viessman had a red, white and blue "Rednecks for Obama" banner made, and began causing a stir in Missouri, which has emerged as a key battleground in the run-up to the November 4 presidential election. "I didn't expect it would get as much steam and attention as it's gotten," Spencer told AFP on the campus of Washington University in Saint Louis, the state's biggest city and site of last week's vice-presidential debate. "We believe in him. He's the best person for the job," Viessman, a former state trooper from Rolla, said of Obama, who met the pair briefly on that July day in Union, Missouri. The candidate bounded off his bus and jogged back towards a roadside crowd to shake hands with the men holding the banner. "He said 'This is incredible'," Spencer recalled. It's been an unexpectedly gratifying run, Viessman said. Rednecks4obama.com claims more than 800,000 online visits. In Denver, Colorado, Viessman and Spencer drew crowds at the Democratic convention, and at Washington University last Thursday they were two of the most popular senior citizens on campus. "I'm shocked, actually, but excited" that such a demographic would be organizing support for Obama, said student Naia Ferguson, 18, said after hamming it up for pictures behind the banner. "When most people think 'redneck,' they think conservatives, anti-change, even anti-integration," she said. "But America's changing, breaking stereotypes." A southern comedian, Jeff Foxworthy, defines the stereotype as a "glorious lack of sophistication". Philistines or not, he said, most rural southerners are no longer proponents of the Old South's most abhorrent ideology -- racism -- and that workaday issues such as the economy are dominating this year's election. "We need to build the economy from the bottom up, none of this trickle down business," Spencer said. "Just because you're white and southern don't mean you have to vote Republican." To an important degree, however, race is still the elephant in the polling booth, experts say, and according to a recent Stanford University poll, Obama could lose six points on election day due to his color. Racism "has softened up some, but it's still there," Viessman acknowledged from Belmont University, site of Tuesday's McCain-Obama debate in Nashville, Tennessee. Despite representing the heartland state of Illinois, and having a more working-class upbringing than his Republican rival John McCain, Obama has struggled to shoot down the impression that he is an arugula-eating elitist. Surely he alienated many rural voters earlier this year when the Harvard-educated senator told a fundraiser that some blue-collar voters "cling to guns or religion". But Viessman, who says he owns a dozen guns, said Obama "ain't gonna take your guns away." The South traditionally votes Republican -- victories for southerners Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter were exceptions -- but with less than a month to election day, four states in or bordering the South are considered toss-ups: Florida, Missouri, North Carolina and Virginia. Viessman says he'd like to think his grassroots movement could sway enough people in small-town America to make a difference. "There's lots of other rednecks for Obama too," he said. "And the ones that's not, we're trying our best to convince them." |
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#104 | |
Refugee
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#105 |
Rock n' Roll Doggie
FOB Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Lovetown
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Got this from a friend, who got it from a friend, etc....
A nice little vid expressing concern about McCain's character. I think they could even have pulled in some more impressive people to comment...
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#106 |
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#107 |
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#108 | |
Blue Crack Supplier
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Location: in the sound dancing - w Bono & Edge :D
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Quote:
....just imagine a While Light around Barack, Michelle, & their kids....that's what I've done for him/them & hillary (when she was running) It's very protective.... |
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#109 | |
Blue Crack Supplier
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![]() ![]() you so gud, ES BTW...I just heard the ES name in reference........oh damn.....oh yeah...a famous USA boxer last night when 2 ppeole were talking on the radio about Muhhamed Ali.... |
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#110 |
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: England by way of 'Murica.
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#111 |
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thanks for the article Mrs S!
![]() cori....... American has often had a anti-intellectual stream running through it. What I don't know is whether at certain times it comes out more than other times. OH yeah and being an intellecturally smart, and curious woam myslef; back in my growing up....eeehhh.....it was even more looked down upon by a lot of people. Luckily my parents didn't stifle that or my artistic side either. ![]() |
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#112 |
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BTW U2dem......
One of the things that Obama didn't highlight when McSame brings up "The Surge" he keeps forgetting to SAY.... that the surge is partially working because we keep FUNDING the Sunni Insurgents NOT to fight any more! Every time Barack has an opening to bring that up......he's hasn't!!! ![]() |
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#113 | |
Refugee
Join Date: Dec 2004
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#114 |
Blue Crack Supplier
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: 8 years and I still can't think of anything witty to put here
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McCain questions Obama's link to '60s radical - John McCain News - MSNBC.com
I don't get it. My parents and I are both watching our retirement funds dwindle away each day ( Dow falls through 9,000 and picks up speed - Stocks & economy - MSNBC.com ) and McCain is talking about some guy from 40 years ago who has no impact on what happens now at all. The economy's in freefall, yet McCain wants to focus on a "60s radical" ![]() |
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#115 |
Refugee
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#116 |
ONE
love, blood, life Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Kettering, Ohio
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He looks wiser, more intelligent, and more sophisticated now though. He wasn't as thin back then, and when I look at pictures of him from 1992, he looks far more 'south' and 'hick' than he does now. He looks much more like a statesman now, imo.
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#117 |
Blue Crack Supplier
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Washington, DC
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i'd take this with a big grain of salt, or at least a healthy shot of skepticism, but Obama is pulling very close in elitist-hatin' WVA. one poll even puts him up by 8 points.
West Virginia 2008 Presidential Ballot |
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#118 |
Blue Crack Addict
Join Date: May 2001
Location: nowhere..........man
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#119 | |
Refugee
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 2,032
Local Time: 07:07 AM
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Quote:
"Yes it seems all politicians are corrupt in some way. However when Obama and his VP say they support gay marriage, it makes me wonder if God won't get sick enough of America's lack of morals and allow the same thing to happen to us that happened to Sodom and Gomorrah? On this part of the debate I have to side with the republicans who openly state that marriage is between a man and a women. I, like Christ have compassion on those who have this "different lifestyle". However, God is able to deliver any of us, no matter what our sins or bad lifestyles, so my prayers go out to those people" ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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#120 | |
Blue Crack Addict
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: A far distance down.
Posts: 28,602
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Quote:
maybe those Hillary voters you had such disdain for are coming over your way? here is a button americans-working-together obama button to go along with your avatar |
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