Reply #51: I grew up in a town of 1500 people in a state with less than 700,000, so I [View All]

think I can speak about rural areas with some confidence, thank you very much. California is not the Midwest. California is not the Great Plains.

And, sorry, but I wouldn't exactly claim that Bustamante's result in the recall as a victory. Registering hundreds of new Democratic voters in a state with a population over 30 million isn't going to make a bit of difference.

Besides, California as a whole, in general, is much, much, MUCH more liberal than anything in the Midwest or the Great Plains. There just is no comparison, and I'm not sure how to get you to understand that.

http://www.mob-rule.com/counties/electoral.html

(sorry, it's a huge map)

Look at ND, SD, NE, KS, OK, WY, MT, etc. The only blue AT ALL in those states is either cities or Native American Reservations.

I don't care how much we "reach out" to voters in those states, we are NOT going to sway 30-40% of the population to vote Democrat no matter what the message is.

And, I am not advocating NOT reaching out to rural America. I am one of the apparent few who still likes Tom Daschle, primarily because he has done more for SD and more for the Midwest than just about any politician alive.

What I am saying is that I don't care how much a Democratic candidate for President campaigns in NE, SD, WY, MT, etc., it is a losing proposition and a waste of time and resources. The electoral votes available in those states are not worth the monumental effort it would take to campaign on a scale large enough to sway MOST of the voters there.

I apologize for my "get a clue" comment. I said it because I just don't believe that most people outside of the Great Plains and the Midwest understand how incredibly conservative it is here. I could be wrong, but many of our fellow posters' comments in this thread haven't yet swayed me from that belief.