JFK won the 1960 West Virginia primary...it was a key test of his religion

[book_worm]

On May 10, 1960 JFK won the West Virginia Democratic primary with nearly 61% of the vote against Sen. Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota. This was a key test if religious bigotry would defeat him in a heavily protestant state. JFK's victory in this primary went a long way towards furthering his odds of being the Democratic nominee.

http://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/mep/displaydoc.cfm?docid=erps-wvp60

I think some of my fellow Obama supporters (a minority of them) are implying that Hillary's win in WVA will be due to racism. While with some this may be the case, but I also feel that the vast majority of her supporters in WVA are not racist. I think this is one state where the Clinton name is a huge help. Remember Bill Clinton was the last Democrat to carry WVA and the economy has deteriorated under the chimp. I think most of Hill's supporter's in WVA remember the good times, or at least better times, under a president named Clinton and this is why she will do very well there tonight. That and lets face it, Hillary has campaigned hard in WVA while Obama has not.

[onehandle]

1. $1.46 Gas.

A happy memory.

[FrenchieCat]

2. West Virginia doesn't give Hillary the delegates she needs,

and it is her and the media that will be touting that they are voting for Hillary because of race, and not because of a long standing relationship that WV has with the Clintons.

That's the sad part; not so much WV's vote result, but mainly because how it will be charecterized by the Hillary campaign and the media. The whole narative will feed into the obvious push for us, as a nation, to go backwards in race relations.

So yes, you may be right, but the win will be used for nefarious reasons, not by Obama supporters so much, but by Camp Clinton and its media.

[book_worm]

4. I agree her appealing to "hard working white voters" comment helped fan the flames.

[nomorewhopper]

3. hillary injected race into the argument to make it seem like WV would mirror the US for voting

WV is not racist.

Sure, there will be some ppl who won't vote for a black guy. But this is a run down coal mining state with a very old, uneducated population. In other words, it's the perfect place for Clinton. Instead of saying "Hillary is strong with older voters without college education", she changes it to "Obama has a problem with whites". This way, she draws a correlation between WV and the entire US and causes the "omg, there's like whites everywhere and they aren't going to vote for Obama!".

All this race talk is bluster and hooey. It was all injected into the discourse by Clinton during her conference call. If she had not mentioned the words, it would not be the debated issue today.

This is why she is destroying our candidate, by pushing these types of issues into the public realm and making it ok to use race against Obama. Republicans and Fox are already doing this, saying stuff like "You see how the crazy left is already beating up Hillary for even mentioning that Whites don't like Obama". They are using her statements to tell white voters that they should not support Obama. Sad.

[keep_it_real]

5. If Obama had time, or well in advance of the election, he should have

Did something like what Kennedy did and should definitely do something like this in the GE, from the article:

"Kennedy responded by moving his key campaign aides to West Virginia, calling on close friends to volunteer their time, and training county campaign chairs in 39 of the state's 59 counties to staff phone banks, host receptions, and go door to door to distribute literature. He changed his schedule to campaign throughout the state and brought Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. there to endorse his candidacy."

[book_worm]

6. I agree, but there were also many fewer primaries in '60 than today

still he didn't ignore the state, but he didn't campaign as hard as he had in other states. On the other hand, Hillary did ignore several small states that Obama didn't.

[Robbins]

7. WV

What many forget Is that many say Kennedey only won WV because of His father and Frank Sinatra's
underworld friends.Now Democrats there today are among the most conservative In the country.
Bush won there by his cronies saying Gore would appoint judges like Hillary who would ban Guns,and
that Kerry wanted to ban the bible.So there are many factos going on here.Race Is one but It Is not the only one.