...was not in West Virginia but in Mississippi, where a special election was held to fill a vacated seat which the Republicans had held since 1994. Bush carried the district with 62% of the vote in 2004. The election last night was a runoff. In the first round, the Democrat had fallen just short of 50% against four Republican challengers.

But once the election was down to one-on-one, Dick Cheney flew in to stump for the Republican and the party ran ad after ad linking the Democrat to Obama. TV ads showed them together. In interviews with voters in Monday's TIMES, one after another remarked that the Democrat was "too liberal" or "too tied to Obama", who was too liberal. They don't race bait nowadays, even in Mississippi, and certainly Obama is a liberal. (The Democratic candidate, Childers, is not.) But it was clear that the Republicans had gotten the message out.

Today, Childers won. The Republicans did everything they could to make the race about Obama, and it didn't work. In Mississippi!!! In a conservative district that Bush won easily and that the Republicans had held since 1994.

This means two things to me.

1) Bush/Cheney are radioactive. Even in the Deep South, even in districts they used to carry easily. McCain can run from them but he can't hide his Bushie positions on Iraq and taxes, and he has no economic program that will distinguish him from Bush. The Republicans are in much more serious trouble than anyone realizes.

2) Obama is NOT radioactive for Congressional candidates, which is a reason many superdelegates may have held off from endorsing him. There isn't any real evidence that Obama is less likely to beat McCain than Clinton is, but if you're a political operative trying to win a close Congressional race in your state, you worry about who is going to help you the most at the top of the ticket. And when it appeared, a few weeks ago, that Obama might be in serious trouble, you might have held out for Clinton not because you thought she could win, but because you didn't want your voters not turning out for you because they don't like Obama.

Nothing in politics is ever conclusive, but that argument took a severe blow tonight. Everybody expected Clinton to win big in West Virginia, but from reading the TIMES article this morning, I concluded that the anti-Obama blitz would work.

It didn't. We really DO seem to have a different electorate this year.

"The Republicans are in much more serious trouble than anyone realizes."

Actually, we've seen clear signs of this from the beginning of the primary season where in state after state Democratic turnout has broken records while Republican turnout has been fair to middling.

Saddled with an unpopular war and a souring economy the GOP has nothing to run on. George Bush is the most unpopular president since Richard Nixon. To top it off, John McCain is bizarrely campaigning for a third term of Bush policies.

The result of the special election in Mississippi is indeed a harbinger of a crushing defeat for the GOP in November.

Obama 08!

Hell yeah, HellFire, I think Obama has a fair chance of winning Jeff Davis' home state this November. A Democrat won a congressional seat long-held by the Republican, and did so by a significant (8%) margin. This was the third such special election victory in a row, with another having been in the south, and the third being Dennis Hastert's seat. If you read the original post, the Repo's did all they could to associate the Democratic candidate with Obama, yet he still won handily -- this against a Republican opponent with no major baggage (unlike many DWI Repo's with illegitimate children and such). I'd say this portends well for Obama in the fall.

In November Obama's opponent won't have the cult of personality helping him out, unlike HillBill; moreover, even a lot of rednecks, once they see their choices, will either vote for Obama, or sit it out, rather than vote for McSame.

And even if Obama doesn't win Mississippi, it will be in play, thereby requiring the Republican forces of darkness to put real money into the race there, as well as having McInane put in more time there -- and those are all things Mr. Magoo does not have much of: money, time and energy. So, at best Obama might take Mississippi, and at worst it will require the Repo evil doers to divert precious campaign resources from more conventional swing states, thereby helping Obama's game. And the guy has clearly got game: he is about to pull out a victory against the hitherto much vaunted Clinton political machine -- no mean feat. He and his campaign are going to run circles around McBane.

does have his work cut out for him in the South.... as well as Nationally, as Senator McCain is a War Hero and all, and the Nation is at War.

Time will tell.... and not that much time as Election Day is right around the corner.

"So put me on a highway
And show me a sign
And take it to the limit one more time "

Thank you for this info..you made my day

etc

@ Hellfire:

The popularity of the Iraq War isn't much higher among voters than George Bush's popularity which is now down to 28%.

John McCain is backpedaling as fast as he can from his "100 years in Iraq" statement of a few weeks ago. But with no plan either for winning the war or for an orderly withdrawal, stalemate seems to be exactly what McCain is offering. Stalemate is bleeding the army white. Our troops deserve better.

Obama 08!

HellFire:

does have his work cut out for him in the South.... as well as Nationally, as Senator McCain is a War Hero and all, and the Nation is at War.

Time will tell.... and not that much time as Election Day is right around the corner.

Seems you don't have an idea how smart Obama is. He has already taken the edge out of this war hero mantra. You will hardly hear him talk about McSame without prefacing his remarks with something like: "He is a war hero, stoutle devoted to the interests of this country, BUT...".

That statement immediately deflates any serious arguments in favor of "Choose McSame; he is a war hero", and focuses on "Is this guy who was once a great hero on the right side of the issues now? Does he really care where the country is going?"

Just watch and see. Obama will win the GE by a landslide.

GO OBAMA 08!

And while continuing to pound away at "black" and "Hussein" may give you some small comfort, it just doesn't work with the majority of people.

In The Deep South we're not afraid of blacks like those who live in 95% white states. We may have bigotry and racism, but we also have real live black friends and mayors and congressmen and legislators - so it'sj ust not all that scary to us.

We have had an unbelievably bad run of luck with Republican. Our state legislatures, Governors and the current administration in Washington has sucked our economies dry, overspent and ballooned our governments past all ability to pay for them. We have tax-cutted ourselves into the toilet, and have cut services to our most needy citizens. At the state and local levels we are invigorated to make a change.

A black President isn't as scary as a continuation along the same road we are on now.

Hellfire: No, I don't. That wasn't my point. My point was that Obama is not nearly as radioactive as everyone presumed he would be, and that this destroys the argument used against him by many that he would harm the Democrats in Congressial races. And my secondary point was that the electorate -- by which I meant the NATIONAL electorate (of which MS is only a part) is different.

You probably have to be my age (66) to remember what a sewer of racist vitriol Mississippi used to be. Blacks contemplating an long auto trip would go FAR out of their way to avoid it. A 10-year-old black kid named Emmett Till was murdered in 1955 for the crime of whistling at a white woman, and the murderers were acquitted. The murder of civil rights workers was common in the 1960s in MS. "Freedom Riders," students testing the interstate laws that banned segregation on interstate buses in 1961, put notes in their undergarments when they crossed the MS border, assuming they'd be murdered and wanting to notify next-of-kin.

All of that said, in 1997 I watched with my jaw resting on the blackjack table as a black man and a white woman walked arm-in-arm through a Gulf Coast casino. Things had changed in MS, and have probably changed some more since. I doubt Obama will win the state -- the South loves military heroes and McCain surely is one. But the race is going to be a lot closer than it was for Bush in 2000 or 2004.

As someone else notes in this thread, the things Bush has done haven't helped MS's working people at all, and like everyone else in the country, they're losing ground. The day when referring to someone as "black Hussein Obama" can get Mississippians to vote against their own interests may have passed, and this election seems to indicate it has.

The times they are a-changin'.

How does Senator Black Hussein Obama, who has never worn the Uniform of the United States Military legally become a Hero?

Senator McCain, on the other hand, is legally a War Hero of the United States of America.... so, just how does Senator Black Hussein Obama take that edge off?

A complete idiot if you also believe that Senator Obama is going to take the South.

Regardless, back to you being an idiot, you no doubt failed to understand that the Poster I responded to called Senator McCain something other than his correct name..... so, I changed a few letters in the first name of Senator Obama, his first name only.

Senator Obama is not the answer..... and that Senator McCain is.

I'll call Senator Obama whatever I wish to call him when someone calls Senator McCain something other than his correct name.... I've called Senator Obama a Nigger many, many times.... and done so openly in verbal conversation.

I hear (or read on the Fray) things about Senator McCain being called McCoward, McTraitor, and so on.... so, Senator Obama becomes a Nigger... or merely Black Hussein Obama, for something like calling Senator McCain McSame.

That could merely be the Military Veteran in me, hard to tell.

Your also old enough to be my Father.... and also, old enough to be the Father of Senator Obama.

Hellfire: I wrote that I DOUBTED (doubted means I DON'T think it will happen) Obama would win MS, because, as I put it, the South loves war heroes and McCain (not Obama, sir, McCAIN) surely is one. Try reading a post before you call the person who wrote it an idiot. I expect an apology from you for completely misunderstanding something I said that should have been plain to anyone capable of reading the English language.

And yes, I did fail to understand the reasoning behind "Black Hussein Obama." Since you were responding in kind to what you perceived as a slur on McCain, I'll cut you slack on that one, and absolve you of racist intent. But my mistake in not understanding your meaning is hardly at the same level as your totally REVERSING the plain meaning of what I said.

I still want the apology or this conversation is over.