Obama Fighting For GOP's Rural Turf

Washington Post: Campaign Presence In Small Virginia Town Symbolizes Effort To Compete Across The Map

(Washington Post) 
Chase City sees itself as an ideal retirement community: simple but affordable, with Main Street all spruced up, courtesy of a state grant and a $1.2 million renovation. The downtown streets are freshly paved, the concrete sidewalks redone to look like painted brick, the new street lights are fastened with flapping banners that read: "A city for all seasons." Amid the modern polish is the gritty country charm: Mom-and-pop general stores where you can get gas and fried chicken. A pawnshop that advertises loans without credit checks and cash in 15 minutes. The hot debate in town is whether to back or derail a planned ethanol plant in the county. And the hot item at the Main Street Cafe is the pulled-pork sandwich.

Finch Parker remembers when Chase City had three car dealerships, a shirt factory, a shoe factory, a soft-drink bottling factory, a department store. Of course, Finch Parker is 92. "Years ago, you'd ride the street to find a place to park," he said. "People would come from other counties to shop. Every Saturday. You don't see that no more."

Things changed, and Parker bought a farm four miles outside of town, but he still comes into town. Every morning at 7, you can find him at the Main Street Cafe eating breakfast in his jeans and boots. That's been his ritual since his wife died in spring of 2007. Breakfast in town, life on the farm. And he still trail-rides horses.

"I don't get tied up in politics," Parker said. "I leave that to the other man. That way I won't make a mistake." But that doesn't stop the people in politics from coming to see him.

Obama volunteers have been to his farm on multiple occasions, trying to lock down this one vote. Parker, whom everyone in town seems to know, might bring others with him, the reasoning goes. The volunteers usually catch him out in his yard, sometimes playing with his dogs or horses. "They tell me I've gotten too old to be fooling around with horses," Parker recalled. They also tell him "how the United States is in terrible shape," courtesy of the Bush administration, he said.

Parker set up a ring in his yard so local kids could be taken around for a loop on one of his steeds, just like at a carnival. One day Obama volunteers showed up with their children to ride Parker's horse. You've got to give them credit for initiative, Parker said. But he's not sure about voting Obama, or voting at all. "I've just got to study it out. Figure it out," he said.

While Finch Parker was being worked on, Obama volunteers were also paying visits to William Thomas, who has one dental practice in town and another nearby. The first visit was about a month ago. He wasn't home; they talked to his wife. The second time was a couple of weeks ago. Thomas was out cutting his grass. He told the Obama volunteer then that he was undecided. "I think what I'd like to see is a little bit of both of them," Thomas said, referring to Obama and McCain. Of course, a split vote is not possible. Joe the Plumber and concerns about taxes going up in an Obama administration has Thomas leaning toward McCain.

The Obama volunteers -- as many as 100 work out of Chase City -- are not easily discouraged. Some put in eight to 10 hours a day. Some make 600 to 800 calls a day. Some wonder how they even came to be there. Madolyn Hayne had been retired for 12 years when she got a cold call from Obama field organizer Steve Spencer in August asking for her help staffing the office.

"What do you need me to do?" Hayne replied.

"Come up to the office," Spencer said, "and we'll let you know."

What she didn't want to do, she told him, was canvass neighborhoods, or work phone banks. But she used to be a secretary, and Spencer said that was exactly what the campaign needed: someone to log into a computer the record of voters reached by phone and whether they are for or against Obama or are undecided. That she could do, Hayne said. "I've never been involved in a campaign before. Never." She figures Spencer must have found her name on some Democratic list. "I never meant to work this hard," Hayne said, but the work somehow became infectious. "It's the best job I've ever had and the hardest I've ever worked for the least amount of money." Which is to say no money at all.

Some Chase City residents consider their participation a calling. "How did we get involved? We basically obeyed the spirit," said Jean Goode. "When the Lord says move, you move."

And move is something her husband does well, all over town, but slowly, deliberately. When the Rev. James Goode of Silone Baptist Church comes calling, folks listen.

* * *

Goode cruised past the Tastee Freeze, turned on Washington Street and pulled his silver '95 Bonneville to the curb. He left the motor running. Goode is 82 with curly white hair combed back. He has been a Democrat all his life, always remembering what his mother told him when he was a boy, after the family had suffered through the Great Depression: Never vote Republican because it will get you in trouble. "She was pretty much right," he said.

Curtis L. Jones, 69, was mixing paint on his porch when he saw Goode's car pull up. He came to the street to chat.

"I know you to be a Democrat," the preacher began, holding his lists of voters.

"I'm a Democrat," Jones replied, "but I told you I don't vote for nobody."

"You going to vote this year?" Goode continued.

"I'm too old now," Jones said. "I'll put it to you this way: I came up the hard way." And Jones started into his rap about the hard way, the odds growing up, the segregation, the lack of opportunity, etc.

Goode listened for a bit, patient, but finally cut him off. "Let's get back to Obama." Goode knew Jones, knew he was stubborn. Jones cut grass down at the church. Goode appealed to Jones's sense of history, and pleaded a better life for future generations.

"I know what you're saying, Rev. But I don't vote. My wife vote, but I don't. I ain't giving you no short answer."

Finally, Goode conceded. "Okay." He turned to leave and opened the door to his running Bonneville. One final thought, Goode had. "Will you say a prayer for him?" he called out to Jones.

Jones promised to pray for Obama, and mentioned again that his wife and sister-in-law would be voting for Obama, and then went back on his porch to stir paint. "No hard feelings," he shouted to Goode. "I hope y'all win."

Goode would make several more stops, hearing from a woman wearing a tattered robe who said she'd "probably" vote for Obama, and hearing from a man who desperately wanted Obama yard signs that were in short supply. He stopped to see Marvin Hatcher, the local fire chief who has a medical transport business and promised to provide rides to the polls. But as he was cruising back to the office, he kept thinking about Curtis L. Jones.

"He's a good guy," Goode said. "I thought he always voted. I can't figure out why he doesn't."

The preacher was thinking that maybe he'd make one more run at Curtis L. Jones before Election Day.

Polling director Jon Cohen contributed to this report.

[targaray-2009]

"Make-Believe" Maverick

John McSame likes to talk about his so-called experience in Washington and how he has been TESTED, but Senator Barack Obama has not been. Well "Lil Johnny" here is your test score - FAILED ...

[targaray-2009]

- WHAT IS a GOP?

- Is George W. Bush still a Republican?
- Are John McSame and Sarah Failin running away from their Bush Republican Heritage?
- Is this some type of "mavericky behavior" or Are they afraid to be seen in public with the President???

[noloyalisti]

Maybe even the rural right wing voters will take their heads out of their butts and see the daylight for Obama. After all he promises jobs, tax cuts, better security and support of the troops. McSame and McQuaylin OFFER NONE OF THAT. Only more disastrus right wing policies.

[iamdemocrat]

(HONOLULU)(November 1, 2008) Internet powerhouse Andy Martin has ignited a firestorm in Hawai''i over Barack Obama''s bogus "original" birth certificate. Martin won a stunning victory Friday afternoon (October 31st) when the State of Hawai''i backed his assertion that there was an original, "typewritten, 1961" birth certificate, called a "Certificate of Live Birth" or "COLB" in Hawai''i, that no one has previously seen. Hawai''i officials retrieved and examined the document after Martin filed a lawsuit seeking access to the historic 1961 original.

Obama has falsely claimed to have placed the "original" on the Internet. Factcheck.org has falsely claimed to have seen this document and posted it on the Internet; that is not true. CNN has falsely ridiculed Martin.

Hawai''i officials have now refuted Obama''s false assertion.

Martin''s victory in Honolulu will roil the final weekend of the presidential campaign. Internet chatter is expected to explode as the issue moves to the front page over Saturday and Sunday. Swing voters may be swayed by the exposure that Obama has brazenly been lying to the American people. "We just lobbed a grenade into the final weekend of the presidential campaign," says Andy.

"I am ecstatic. I called Obama a liar. I called Factcheck.org ''ObamaLies.org.'' I said CNN was sloppy and lazy and wrong. And I was right. The State of Hawai''i has now backed me up.
-andy martin

[skeetchamp]

Obama and his people should stop spending so much time in what used to be reliable Republican states and go back to more solidly Democratic states where if they secure wins they will get the 270 electoral votes they need. Don''t go for the overkill, just stick with the sure thing.

[mjthere]

Silly Sarah is having a baby!! - medical records awaited

[merlgrey]

''Hes still a coward, still a liar, still a friend of anti-Semites, and is probably one himself...''
Posted by obamasaho2 at 12:23 PM

obamasaho2- im not voting obama or mcain, but please explain why obama is an anti semite- or is friends of anti semites?

[windmaster12]

Country First?
Vietnam Vets against Mccain!!!

According to documentation obtained by the U.S. Veteran Dispatch, not only did POW McCain promise to give the communists "military information" in exchange for special hospital care not ordinarily available to U.S. prisoners, but he also made numerous antiwar radio broadcasts.

This is a violation of the Military Code of Conduct and is considered collaborating with the enemy.

The following is McCain''s own admission of collaboration in an article he wrote, printed May 14, 1973 in U.S. News and World Report:

"I think it was on the fourth day [after being shot down] that two guards came in, instead of one. One of them pulled back the blanket to show the other guard my injury. I looked at my knee. It was about the size, shape and color of a football. I remembered that when I was a flying instructor a fellow had ejected from his plane and broken his thigh. He had gone into shock, the blood had pooled in his leg, and he died, which came as quite a surprise to usa man dying of a broken leg.

Then I realized that a very similar thing was happening to me.

"When I saw it, I said to the guard, `O.K., get the officer.''

"An officer came in after a few minutes. It was the man that we came to know very well as `The Bug.'' He was a psychotic torturer, one of the worst fiends that we had to deal with. I said, `O.K., I''ll give you military information if you will take me to the hospital.''"

GOOGLE:

MCCAIN COLLABORATOR

[daffy64]

He''''s still a coward, still a liar, still a friend of anti-Semites, and is probably one himself, and certainly no friend of the U.S. Armed Forces or America itself.

Congrats, Leftists - you''''ve chosen the worst candidate and you are going to lose big-time. The Democratic Party will need a major overhaul after choosing traitors like Kerry and Obama.

---

You''re in denial.

Come back on Wednesday and analyze why Obama won.

[caliguy55]

I was shocked this morning, when I heard Gov. Schwarzenegger say that Sen. Barack Obama should use some of the millions he collected in contributions to his Presidential campaign to pay the Wall Street Banks, financial firms, etc., to help with the financial crisis they created. For at least a month, I''ve heard nothing but accusations of "socialism" spew from Johnny McSame''s campaign. Now, that same campaign is calling for communism in its rankest form, when it wants to confiscate the wealth of individuals and spread it among individuals and financial institutions, which were too stupid to manage their own wealth. Come of Johnny McSame, you senile old phart, you were standing right next to the terminator, when he made these comments. I want to know whether you are a freaking communist like your campaign buddy. Obama/Biden 2008!!!

[bigsk8fan]

go get ''em barack. hope over fear. change is coming. 01/20/09 end of an error.

If I was a prominent republican I would not run after the Bush fiasco. They threw this old man up as a sacrifice because his future is behind him. The "Obama Express" rolls on...

[spinproof]

No matter how bad the Democrats and Obama are portrayed, this time around the Republicans are far worst and have the bad track record to prove it.