Tuesday night, Barack Obama was handed two more embarrassing near-defeats in the Democratic primaries held in Arkansas and Kentucky. In the Arkansas primary, challenger John Wolfe won nearly 42% of the vote, and in Kentucky 42% of Democrats selected “uncommitted” over President Obama. So far, four states — AR, KY, WV, and OK — have given over 40% of their primary vote to someone other than Barack Obama. All of these races were closed primaries, meaning that only Democrats were eligible to vote in them.
If this kind of inter-party rebellion had struck a Republican presidential incumbent (and I’m specifically thinking of George W. Bush) it would be the lead story on every cable news network, and an above-the-fold front page story on every major newspaper for the remainder of the week. Yet it barely gets mentioned these days, with the exception of this curious headline from the Washington Post: “Kentucky, Arkansas primaries: Is it racism?”
Ha-ha. And by the way, have you stopped beating your wife yet?
Naturally the article brings up the infamous “Bigot Belt” graphic that showed Redneckland to be the only area of the nation that rejected Barack Obama outright in 2008. Certainly it wasn’t Obama’s elitism, or his anti-Americanism, or his sleazy Chicago cronies, or his youthful infatuation with cocaine and Marxist professors, or his long-time association with a radical domestic terrorist, or his membership in a church led by one of the most inflammatory Black separatist pastors in the country. Nah, it couldn’t possibly be any of those things that disinterested voters in the South. It must be because he is half African. Because that’s all we ever think about down here.
You know what? I’m actually kinda proud of that map. Seems we Okies ain’t as dumb as they think we is.
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CORRECTION: The Arkansas primary was indeed an open primary, meaning it was open to all voters regardless of registered political affiliation. But the KY, WV, and OK primaries were closed. You can view a list of open primary states here.
And a big thank you to Instapundit, Pajamas Media, Stop the ACLU, Brutally Honest, Pirate’s Cove, and Hardastarboard for linking.
