Even in the strange game of politics, a strong showing by a mullet-sporting extortionist serving time in federal prison in a race against the President of the United States constitutes a good “man-bites-dog” story.
So when federal prisoner #11593-051, aka Keith Judd, pulls down 41 percent of the vote, compared with President Obama’s 59 percent, in Tuesday’s Primary Election, inquiring minds want to know what it all means.
The blogosphere is filled with rants about how West Virginians are bigoted clodhoppers. Here are a couple of postings from the website Slate:
“So basically the hillfolk (sic) will vote for just any white person over Obama. Shocker,” wrote Tom Pryor.
“The people of West Virginia have got to be some of the stupidest people on this planet,” wrote a poster identified as Popokinip.
There were a lot more like that, but you get the drift. As always, the truth of what happened on Tuesday is a little more complicated.
West Virginians did not know who Keith Judd was. Yes, there had been a couple of stories about this odd ball who embellishes his resume and claims to have been a candidate for President four other times. But his “candidacy” in the beauty contest of West Virginia’s Democratic Presidential Primary Election was virtually ignored.
So it’s not as though nearly 73,000 Democrats and independents in West Virginia were getting behind this miscreant.
No, this was a protest vote against a President who is wildly unpopular here. Keith Judd was just a surrogate for “Anybody But Obama.”
The President’s primary constituency groups are not widely represented here. Liberals/progressives, younger voters, environmentalists and minorities are significantly outnumbered by older, white, working class conservatives.
West Virginia just isn’t in Obama’s demo.
Additionally, the President’s activist EPA has put a significant strain on coal, the state’s leading industry. Coal has responded with a campaign critical of the EPA. That effort has chipped away at the little support the President does have here.
Consider that in 2008 President Obama carried Boone County, located in the heart of coal country, but in Tuesday’s election, Obama lost Boone to Judd 2,343 to 2,199.
So either more Boone County residents decided in the last four years that they were racists, or they’re fed up with Obama’s EPA and they used Tuesday’s vote to say so.
Also, President Obama has no natural political allies in West Virginia. Governor Tomblin and Senator Manchin say they are undecided if they will vote for the President. Congressman Nick Rahall says he’ll vote for Obama, but is quick to point out sharp differences with the administration.
All leading state Democrats, except perhaps Senator Jay Rockefeller, who is not up for re-election this year, realize the political toxicity of President Obama and would prefer to pretend as though he doesn’t exist.
The editorial writers at the Charleston Gazette would like us to believe that Obama’s West Virginia woes are due to our “rural, less-educated” population. If that elitist view is accurate, it would explain why so many voters picked Keith Judd Tuesday.
But it’s more likely that voters who picked Judd did not know he was a joke of a candidate. They did, however, know plenty about the current President, meaning their choice was a strong statement of their dissatisfaction.
And that’s no laughing matter.