It's likely to be all show for Obama here on out, but I agree, he is careless to take his eye off states he figures he can't win. This means, he probably won't win them in the fall if he gets the nomination. While he's busy out selling the "new democratic party" of some dems, independents, and some republicans, this won't make a difference in the states that matter. No amount of delegates in a primary will be enough in the general election if a candidate can't carry the swing states. Nearly every poll and analysis still shows him unable to win in the electoral college because he can't carry the states, like West Virginia, that will be up for grabs.

Clinton, on the otherhand, carries most of these swing states and nearly all the big ones. She beats Obama 2 to 1 electorally. And she wins in the electoral college in a run-off against McCain while Obama fails.

Obama not only does the people and himself a disservice by ignoring West Virgina and Kentucky. He risks sinking the "new democratic party" he claims to have created as well.

But Obama has a long history of only going where he knows he is already liked. He finds disfavor very upsetting, and this will be a significant problem for him, should he win both the primary and general election. Pres. Bush has this trouble, too, and he easily cut himself off from a majority of Americans because they questioned his policies and priorities. In personality and temperment, both men are very alike in many ways. Obama's recasting of the democratic party into some new makeup of people, all and only, who happen to favor him, may be the biggest misstep and misjudgment of his career so far. And, our bad luck as a nation.

Finally, it should be evident that Obama is not a uniter. Were he one, he wouldn't have to recarve and reassemble different groups of demographics to try and recreate a whole. He'd be enlarging the tent, not making it smaller, or perhaps more aptly, making it selective. Anyone can put together a coalition of everyone who agrees. It's getting those who see things differently to come together that is the challenge. One Obama has yet, in all his political career yet to achieve.

But Obama has a long history of only going where he knows he is already liked.

I have to ask what sort of fantasy world you're living in. He campaign extensively in Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey and other states where he trailed badly to start, in same cases by more than 20 points.

So can you cite other cases or Obama ducking states, or are merely talking out your ass? Actually, that's a rhetorical question. I already know the answer.

"But Obama has a long history of only going where he knows he is already liked."

Sigh. Another dying "up is down" gasp from the Hillary Clinton camp. Do we really have to go through the real history again?

Before the Iowa caucus Clinton was leading the pack by 20% in the national polls. Barack Obama wasn't liked anywhere. Hell, he wasn't even known anywhere outside of Illinois.

Obama went into Iowa with just a suitcase in his hand. He didn't have universal name recognition. He didn't have the enthusiastic endorsement of the last Democratic president. He didn't have a campaign war chest or a personal fortune to tap. He didn't have any of the advantages the front-runner and "inevitable" candidate had.

West Virginia is the first state that Obama has written off. By some Clintonian magic that gets transmogrified into a "long history of only going where he knows he is already liked." Gimme a break here! Enough with the Orwellian "up is down" already.

Obama 08!

Look his canvassers and campaigners reported widespread vandalism, harrassment, and race baiting in W. Virginia. He all but shut down his offices there.

A lot of these canvassers are college kids from other states, for goodness sakes just trying to be politically active for the first time in their lives.

The campaign felt that there was "a certainly level of risk" for them.

Typical Clinton race-baiting: using the word "shine" when describing Obama. A more appropriate title would have been "where he can win" or "where he can succeed", but you use a racist term. Nice work. And, like your Hillary, you will claim to be all innocent -- I never even thought that "hard working Americans...white Americans" might be interpreted that way.

wow more obama race baiting from his supporters, that is why he will never win amoungst working white voters.. I should get you all some more shovels so you can kee digging your own grave. No one ever brings up race except obama suporters.

"No one ever brings up race except obama suporters."

Have you ever considered becoming a fiction writer? Or a Fox News reporter? There are professions where your skills can be put to good use.

Obama 08!

Obama was in the bootheel of Missouri earlier today. That's where Rush Limbaugh is from. Do you think he was there because they already like him?

Where on earth are you getting your polling figures from? So far polling indicates that HRC and Obama both win, and although she gets a couple of big states that are for him toss-ups, he grabs more swing states than she does. In fact she loses states like Oregon that have gone Democratic in years past, while Obama picks up CO, NM, NV, IA, and puts VA, NC, and even MT and TX into play (granted, he could very well lose PA, which is huge). So far Clinton shows greater strength in several big states, but she gets CREAMED in all those other states, which makes her an albatross for the down-ticket races--meaning a Dem majority Congress is a more fragile thing for her. Of course all of this is pretty speculative this far out. But your argument isn't even sensible here, for this reason as well as those pointed out here by other fraysters. You're not one of those crazies from over at Hillaryis44 are you? Those folks have completely left the planet.

I have been most concerned about the disregard of security issues related to Senator Obama's campaign. Only recently have they emerged. I would think that a competing hypothesis regarding why Senator Obama did not heavily campaign in WV and Kentucky has more to do with the ability to keep him safe rather than the fact that he only goes where he can shine, especially given the fact that he was visiting both Missouri and Michigan at that time of these primaries. In addition, I also believe that Senator Obama did not want to expose those who are canvassing for him to have prolonged to the virulous hatred towards the idea of voting for an African American candidate. If you have not read any of the comments regarding him, here is one from a voter in WV - "that half-breed, and that name, who could trust him." Maybe you have not done telephone or door knocking, but comments like this verges on abuse. In fact, the recent articles about this type of exposure reminded me of the recorded experiences of folks involved in voter registration drives in the South in the 70's.

It seems that folks are trying to extrapolate results from this primary and those in Ohio and Penn to the general election. This does not play well. To assume that these same folks would vote for a woman over a man, given their vulnerability to misinformation and down right lies is simplistic and down right dangerous.

The assumption that hard working white Americans will not vote for Obama is unfounded. Obama has won with these groups in places like Minnesota and Wisconsin. In fact he would not be the front runner if white Americans had not voted for him.

There are a number of subtexts in this election that have to do with racism, sexism, classism and regionalism. I for one am satisfied that at least we are beginning to define what they are. I am weary of the sloppy generalizations that distort the meaning of the factors that are making it difficulty for us to come together as a country and to solve the increasing number of problems that we face. I believe that this is what Obama is referring to while dealing with distortions and misperceptions.

We are facing a turning point in how the democratic party defines itself. All of us common folks who want decency and basic policies that respect us as citizens have known for a long time that we can support a candidacy like Obama's.

I and others do not really care about what a candidate eats, if he carries a bowling average of 250, if he can "knock back 10 shots of whiskey without passing out," or what kind of music (s)he enjoys. What we do care about is whether or not each of us has a living wage, adequate medical insurance, good schools and roads and an ability to be a good friend to the rest of the world and whether or not a candidate shares these same concerns.

By good friend you mean talking to anti-american leaders of countries that hate us without precondition, you know what that tells me - that he is down right stupid. they are going to walk all over him every chance they get. that is a bad judgement call on his part.

going to the reply to my statement earlier, nothing i have said is fiction. Look at every time someone starts to come down hard on obama and his veiws, someone that is a obama supports starts crying race. i am sick of it, if he is such a huge advocate for change why the hell are his supporters always bringing up something that is hundreds of years old. that doesnt show me anything good about his supporters.. if you dont believe me go back though all the old threads and see who brings that subject up first...

difference between being a State senator and a United States senator that effectively Obama is still a political babe in the woods and to anyone with an actual education in politics his success can easily be read as a happy accident between a national press that salivated over having a presidential contest between 'An Old White Military Veteran and a Youngish Black Harvard Attorney' and the DNC that rigged the nomination process for Obama.

Traditionally, however, the press subtly favors the republican during presidential contests; just ask Al Gore and John Kerry; and is probably going to help the GOP propagandists nail Obama's hide to the wall. So, for the first time, Obama may not have the press campaigning for him and certainly will not be able to depend on the DNC to rig anything for him. Their ability to blackmail or bribe superdelegates will be a non-issue in the general election.

Soooooooo, what is Obama going to do? Somehow he has got to win over all those White Trash voters and Angry Feminists that the press and the DNC and his supporters have been sneering at and spitting on for a couple of months now. Ohhhhhhh . . . hey, good luck with that Obama!

McCain probably does not have to worry about the conservatives in his Party that consider him too liberal for their tastes because they ARE the racists in this nation and they are NOT going to tolerate having a Black Liberal as president. A Black Conservative, maybe [but ONLY if he is such a howling conservative that he -- or she -- makes G.W. Bush look like a liberal]; but a Black Liberal . . . never!

So the Party's conservatives will come around before the presidential race is finished. He has a lock on the moderate republicans and he is actually a favorite of moderate mainstream democrats -- you know, all those people that the press and the DNC and Obama's supporters have been spitting on.

So what is Obama going to do? Unless he demonstrates heretofore well hidden abilities to stand on his own two feet and go toe-to-toe with an opponent [instead of just deliver prepared speeches] he is going to lose the general election.

A race that originally was going to be a cake walk for Hillary is now going to become a trail of tears for Obama. But then sometimes that is what happens when one sets out to help rig an election process. Sometimes you make it big like a G.W. Bush and sometimes you merely become an interesting footnote in history textbooks.

"Obama? Oh, you mean the first Black nominee of the Democratic Party that get his ass handed to him in a general election? Oh yeah . . . wasn't he famous for saying something about bitterness?"

Well, finally a decent post on this board.

I mentioned Ohio, Pa., California ,Indiana Florida New Hampshire,even little WV. That poor,little state helped put JFK across many years ago. I could have sworn Hillary won those states.

I was told,I did not have my facts straight and was brainwashed by Hillary.

Guess I will have to take my facts away. Now I see to use the word,"Shine," is an insult to Obama? If that poor little dear gets offended by that word,wait until the Republicans get through with him!

There is a lot of discussion on here about race. Let me tell you something, racial bias exists. We Obama supporters know it because a lot of us volunteer for his campaign. I was sent to a rural area of a southern state last month. Because they didn't have any local white volunteers, and it was too uncomfortable (and down right dangerous) to have black supporters going door to door, we came in from out of state. I'm an older white female, and I have never been called such ugly things...by such ugly people. YOU try campaigning for a minority in the rural deep south before you attempt to tell us that it is over blown! Put your money where your mouth is! The campaign office in this small town had given up on putting signs out because they were vandalized with "KKK" and "nigger". So, unless YOU have knocked on doors in the deep south for a minority candidate don't even try to tell ME about race sensitivity!

department going to make Obama cry but his pie-in-the-sky, fantasy-dreamworld, supporters as well.

It's going to become a very amusing race indeed.