Obama, the South, and the Black Vote
Thomas Schaller, the author of Whistling Past Dixie: How Democrats Can Win Without the South, argues that the notion that Barack Obama has a good chance of winning Southern states because he'll energize black turnout is based on fallacious reasoning. The first myth is that African-American turnout in the South is low. Black voters are actually well represented in the Southern ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 1, 2008 13:37
Jim Webb: Confederate Sympathizer?
Senator Jim Webb, touted by many as a vice presidential candidate who would help shore up Barack Obama with Southerners and those uncomfortable with his lack of national security experience, has an "affinity" for the Confederacy, Politico's David Mark reports breathlessly. He has suggested many times that while the Confederacy is a symbol to many of the racist legacy ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 11, 2008 07:15
Deep South Blues for the GOP
The Democrats have picked up their second Deep South congressional seat in as many weeks, with Travis Childers defeating Republican candidate Greg Davis by a substantial margin in the special election contest to replace Roger Wicker, now serving as the interim junior senator from Mississippi, in the House of Representatives: The seat had been in Republican hands since 1995, and the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 14, 2008 02:15
A GOP ‘Bigot Eruption’?
U.S. Representative Geoff Davis has started a huge blogospheric outcry for allegedly using a racial slur directed at Barack Obama. Oliver Willis, among others, has described this as a "bigot eruption". Here's the offending remark:Congressman Geoff Davis, took the criticisms of Mr. Obama a few steps further, likening the change slogan to the pitch of a “snake oil ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on April 15, 2008 00:51
Obama, McCain Prevail in Mississippi
To the surprise of virtually no one, Barack Obama has won the Mississippi Democratic primary, the last contest before Pennsylvania's primaries in late April. To even less surprise, presumptive Republican nominee John McCain also prevailed in his party's contest. Perhaps more interesting than the primary victory are the exit poll numbers, which may suggest some serious problems for the Democrats ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on March 11, 2008 21:10
Flat Tax? No, Fat Ban
Radley Balko finds lard of a different nature than pork spending on the menu of the Mississippi legislature: a state legislative bill sponsored by two Republicans and one Democrat that would effectively ban all restaurants in the state from serving the "obese." Lest you think the sponsors are kidding, blogger Sandy Szwarc contacted the main sponsor of the bill ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on February 1, 2008 14:07
Confederate Flag Flies in South Carolina Primary
The Civil War might have ended 143 years ago but the Confederate battle flag refuses to die as a political issue. The Republican presidential candidates on Thursday moved to appeal to different types of conservative voters before the South Carolina primary, with Mike Huckabee using colorful language to declare the Confederate flag a states’ rights issue and Senator John McCain ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on January 18, 2008 11:34
Boy Howdy
Jeffro2pt0 of the Weblog Tools Collection blog reports that some significant number of WordPress developers are irritated by the software's practice of greeting users of its interface with a "Howdy" in the upper right hand corner. It seems as though the word Howdy, is not liked by many people in many places. I’ve been monitoring an ongoing discussion taking place ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on December 30, 2007 09:51
Virginia Continues Blue Trend
Virginia has long been considered a Republican hotbed -- the last Democrat to win the state's Electoral College vote was Lyndon Johnson in 1964 -- it has now elected two Democratic governors in a row, has a Democratic Senator and may be about to have two. Last night, Democrats gained four seats to take control of the Virginia Senate. Democrats ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on November 7, 2007 13:13
What is it with South Carolina?
Kevin Drum, citing reports that the "Barack Obama is a secret Muslim" story has gotten some (very minor) legs is South Carolina and reminding readers that there were some rather ugly smears against John McCain there in 2000, asks, "What is it about South Carolina, anyway?" This, perhaps predictably, brings forth some spewing of venom and counter-venom among commenters about ignorant ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on October 15, 2007 16:28
