jackconaty's Blog

West Virginia is a beautiful state.  You didn't get to see much of it in the political coverage.  Like so much of this campaign it was reduced to a few carefully staged political events and then the inevitable exit polls.  By now you know it's very white, largely undereducated and very poor.  An easy place for the political elites to write off.  But that's a mistake and for the Obama campaign it could be a critical mistake.  No Democrat has won the White House since 1916 without winning there.  West Virginians liked Jack Kennedy in 1960 but they loved Bobby in 1968.  Robert Kennedy seemed to touch people there in a way no political candidate had before or has since. There's a lot of talk about a "new political paradigm" in this election and how the Obama campaign will define it.  But there's a little bit of West Virginia in a number of states the Democrats will need this November and that's why what John Edwards did on Wednesday was so important.

The temptation is to give David Axelrod another thundering round of applause for his brilliant sense of timing.  He handled the Edward's announcement with such skill you might be tempted to overlook just what he accomplished.  He changed the lead political story on the network newscasts (and on cable) less than two hours to air.  He deflated Hillary Clinton's thundering win in West Virginia and put the spotlight back on Obama and "the angry white guy."  Maybe you have to work in the news business, as David did, to understand how hard it is to hijack air time on the traditional network newscasts.  But on ABC, the Edwards endorsement grabbed almost five times the coverage it would have gotten if Edwards had done it at noon.  The spin, at least initially, is Edwards made his belated endorsement to try and unify the party at moment when a lot of angry white guys and white women in West Virginia sent another message.  But be careful and remember that what makes you feel that good can make you feel that bad.

Barack Obama and John Edwards did look like a "dream team" on stage in Grand Rapids, in a state that has its own share of angry white guys.  But Edwards alone can't  make the Obama message resonate with these folks.  Obama must find his own voice with these voters and he hasn't yet.  He has to develop a comfort level with these people and display a genuine empathy for the things that anger them.  He touched on these themes in his speech on race in Philadelphia but he's got to prove he can take it off the podium and down into the street.  Many of these people felt like Ronald Reagan, felt they did not leave the Democratic Party but the party left them.  They have no more in common with a Hollywood movie star than a Harvard lawyer.  The trick is the connection, the ability to relate to the reasons they stay in those small towns in West Virginia.  The geographic beauty is a part of it.  So too is the pride and sense of patriotism.  All they want is a fair shake in a global economy and some gratitude for the sacrafices so many families have made in the name of national defense.  Edwards knows it because he grew up in the region and undertands the culture.  Obama knows it too.  But he has to prove the politics of a post racial candidate will be as color blind as the rhetoric.  It's not going to easy and some will never be convinced.  But this too is part of that new political paradigm.