Rednecks for Obama: Turning Electoral Trends Upside Down

The Senator from Illinois is up six points against McCain, according to a poll published yesterday.

During a July stop in Missouri, the Democratic candidate was welcomed with a provocative banner which read, “Rednecks for Obama!” Intrigued, Mr. Obama came from down from his campaign bus and headed spiritedly toward Tony Viessman, 74, and Les Spencer, 50. “He said ‘It’s incredible,’” Mr. Spencer reports, still brimming with enthusiasm after meeting his hero, adding, “We believe in him. He is the best of the lot for president.”

When simplifying electoral schematics, the Democrats are the majority in urban areas of the West and Northeast, like California and New York, where Barack Obama can rely on two bases: the black vote and leftist intellectuals. The Democrats are in the minority in the Midwest and the Southeast, where they are dominated by “rednecks,” literally meaning their necks have been burned by the sun in the countryside, and can also be translated as “bubba” or “hillbilly.” But the Viessman-Spencer duo proclaims their redneck identity, all the while supporting possibly the first African-American to become president of the United States. “There are a lot of bubbas for Obama,” Tony Viessman asserts. “And those who aren’t, we’re trying to bring them over!” “It isn’t because we’re white and Southern that we have to vote Republican,” his friend Spencer added.

The two men launched their crusade last year by noticing that they weren’t the only ones who wanted to radically change things in Washington all while loving beer, guns and Nascar, some of the many symbols of rural and popular America. Their site, Rednecks4obama.com, claimed more than 800,000 hits and their banner caused a sensation at the Democratic convention in Denver (west) at the end of August and later last week at the University of Washington in St. Louis, Missouri. “When you say ‘redneck,’ right away you think of conservative, reactionary and even segregationist politics,” remarked Naia Ferguson, an 18-year old student. “But America changes and crushes stereotypes.” For Southern comedian Jeff Foxworthy, who defines redneck identity as “a glorious absence of sophistication,” several regions of the South have moved away from the racist ideology of the past. But Tony Viessman doesn’t quite agree. “Racism is not as open, but it’s still there,” he said.

Unable to attack the Democrat for his skin color, his enemies have accused him in the past couple of months of being “elitist,” referencing his degree from one of the country’s most prestigious universities, Harvard. The candidate hasn’t lived down his comments that some workers cling “to their guns and religion.” But Tony Viessman, who owns over a dozen guns, isn’t worried. He thinks that Obama “isn’t going to take away our guns.”

All the same, in a Reuters/C-Span/Zogby poll published yesterday, Mr. Obama is ahead of John McCain by six votes among likely voters. The Democratic candidate, earning 49% to 43% for his Republican rival, gained more four more than in the previous poll, with a margin of error at around 2.9%. “Over the past few days, it’s clear that he’s had an advantage of two to three points in the six point margin,” observes pollster John Zogby, among whom this margin is from then on statistically significant.

Palin Denies Abuse of Power Charge in Alaska

The Republican running mate, Sarah Palin, denied Saturday of having committed an abuse of power while she was governor of Alaska, which a legislative investigation concluded on Friday. Asked to find out if the accusations against her were true, she responded, “No, and if you read the report, you will see that there was nothing illegal or contrary to ethics laws. You have to read the report.” In that report published by the Legislative Council of Alaska, investigator Steve Branchflower said that Governor Palin was guilty of state ethical violations for letting her husband use her office to put pressure on law enforcement leaders to get her brother-in-law, Mike Wooten, a police officer entangled in a messy divorce from her sister, fired. The Chief of Police in Alaska, Walt Monegan, claims that he had been fired on July 11th by Governor Palin for his refusal to fire Wooten.

Elsewhere, Mrs. Palin attacked Barack Obama Saturday, accusing him of supporting an “unlimited abortion rights.”

An evangelical pastor condemns multi-faith support for Obama.

An evangelical pastor who welcomed the Republican candidate for the White House, John McCain, to Davenport, Iowa on Saturday, denounced the support from around to world for his Democratic rival Barack Obama from members of other religions besides Christianity. “Millions of people on this earth who pray to their god, be it Hindu (sic), Buddha or Allah, support his opponent (the Democrat Barack Obama),” declared Arthur Conrad, pastor of the Grace Evangelical Church, the rostrum where John McCain prepared to deliver a speech. If Mr. Obama were to win the presidential election on November 4th, “they’re going to think that they’re God is bigger than your vote,” the pastor suggests, adding that “I pray that you go before then and honor your name from now and until the end of the election.” Every week, the invectives have come out in Republican rallies where some speakers at several rallies insisted on addressing Obama as “Barack Hussein Obama,” to emphasize his middle name.