WASHINGTON
In grim times, a bitter Hillary clings to bitter voters who in grim times supposedly cling to guns, religion and antipathy to people who aren57;t like them.
Mining that antipathy, the New York senator has been working hard to get the hard-working white voters of hardscrabble Appalachia so she can show that a black man can57;t yet be elected president.
Obama breezed through West Virginia, the state he couldn57;t charm even wearing a flag pin and promising to invest in 60;clean coal.61; Fast Barry shot some pool Monday afternoon at Schultzie57;s Billiards in South Charleston, including prophetically sinking an eight-ball in the pocket, and then fled from Hillary territory to pursue white, blue-collar workers in battleground states and convince them not to vote for John McBush.
Obama is acting the diffident debutante, pretending not to care that he was given a raspberry by a state he will need in the fall. He was dismissed not only by the voters Hillary usually gets, but was also edged out in blocs that usually prefer him — the under-30 set, college graduates and affluent voters.
Interviews with West Virginians leaving the polls showed some profound weaknesses that could haunt the Illinois senator in the fall. More than half said they would be dissatisfied if Obama was the nominee. Half believe he shares the views of the Rev. Wright, and more than half said he does not share their values. More than half also said that he is not honest and trustworthy. Just under half of the Clinton voters said they would not support Obama in the fall.
Obama may have started the primary season with an inspiring win in 94-percent-white Iowa, but he is winding it up with a resounding loss in 94-percent-white West Virginia.
60;As the song says, 56;Almost heaven,57; 61; Hillary said at her Charleston victory party, hailing herself as 60;the strongest candidate,61; the one who can win swing states, and urging again that Michigan and Florida votes be counted.
60;You know I never give up,61; she said, with a W.-strength denial of reality.
Two in 10 white voters said race was important in how they voted, and more than 8 of 10 of these went for Hillary. This echoes an article in The Washington Post on Tuesday that chronicled the racism that some Obama volunteers found in Indiana and Pennsylvania.
The story quoted Victoria Switzer, a retired social studies teacher, who could take only one night on an Obama phone bank in the nearly all-white Susquehanna County, Pa.: 60;One caller, Switzer remembers, said he couldn57;t possibly vote for Obama and concluded: 56;Hang that darky from a tree!57; 61;
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote about complaints of racism after a bar in Marietta, Ga., began selling an Obama 2008 T-shirt with a picture of Curious George peeling a banana.
Charlie Peters, the legendary former editor of the liberal Washington Monthly who ran Jack Kennedy57;s campaign in Kanawha County, W. Va., said Obama should study how J.F.K. managed to win there despite raging anti-Catholicism.
(My father, in West Virginia once on business, found his car had been flipped over by some locals furious about a sign on it supporting the first Catholic Democratic nominee, Al Smith.)
60;The point of West Virginia in 1960 is that you can change attitudes,61; Peters, an Obama supporter, said on Tuesday evening. 60;But if you don57;t act to change them, he could lose West Virginia and I think he could lose the country.
60;He has to change those perceptions of the people who think he could actually agree with the Rev. Wright.61;
J.F.K. bought affection in West Virginia. 60;The boss of Logan County said 35,61; Peters recalled. 60;He meant $3,500, but Kennedy thought it was $35,000, so he gave him $35,000. They put out all this money and they carried the precincts.61; (Hillary has been using street money more than Obama, though it is unclear how much it has helped.)
West Virginia loved F.D.R. 60;because the Depression had been very tough for them and F.D.R. was kind to them,61; Peters said. (On my father57;s trip, he was threatened by a man who asked him about 60;rumors61; that President Roosevelt was in a wheelchair and threatened to thrash any man who said so. My dad, a detective who served on protective details for F.D.R., assured the ruffian that Roosevelt was 60;a fine, athletic man.61;)
So the campaign brought down F.D.R. Jr., Peters recounted, to 60;say it57;s O.K. to vote for this Catholic.61; Because West Virginia had a lot of veterans, they distributed a little tabloid emphasizing J.F.K.57;s war record, including a Reader57;s Digest piece about his heroism in the Pacific.
And finally, there was the beguiling Kennedy wit and smile. 60;Kennedy turned out to be this engaging person,61; Peters said, 60;especially with young people, and children talked to their parents.61;
Peters says Obama needs imagination and a 60;tremendous effort61; to dispel bias in West Virginia, and quickly, 60;because once it57;s set in concrete, you57;ll have a hell of a time.61;
