No, I am not the "Log Cabin Republican". A friend forwarded his message about a trip to the dentist office in Texarkana. The staff were all talking about totally crazy stuff and even the dentist told the patient that Obama was a Muslim, etc.
Texarkana is a city on the border with Arkansas.
In 1992 and 1996, Bill Clinton won the tier of states from Minnesota to
Louisiana, including of course the states of Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana. These states were lost in 2000 and 2004 by fairly large margins. Gore barely won Iowa in 2000. And we Democrats are in serious trouble if Minnesota is in play.
Anyway, I am passing on these points by the LCR, edited for brevity.
Here's what started the whole thing, a "Dear Abby" column that was probably a joke:
Dear Abby,
I am a crack dealer in Beaumont , Texas , who has recently been diagnosed as a carrier of the HIV virus. My parents live in Fort Worth . One of my sisters lives in Pflugerville and is married to a transvestite. My father and mother have recently been arrested for growing and selling marijuana. They are financially dependent on my other two sisters, who are prostitutes in Dallas . I have two brothers: one is currently serving a life sentence at Huntsville for the murder of a teenage boy in 1994. My other brother is currently in jail awaiting charges of sexual misconduct with his three children. I have recently become engaged to marry a former prostitute who lives in Longview . She is a part time 'working girl'.
All things considered, my problem is this. I love my fiancée and look forward to bringing her into the family. I certainly want to be totally open and honest with her. Should I tell her about my cousin who supports Barack Obama for President?
Signed,
Worried About My Reputation
---------------------------------------------------------------
Here is the gist of the e-mail from the "Log Cabin Republican", edited
for brevity:
.... the wife of the Dentist told me God would decide the election.
...a dental assistant told me Obama was going to bring all the blacks from Africa and Muslims from all over the world to take over America if he were elected President. The other dental assistant told me Obama had been sworn in with his hand on the Koran. The dentist himself told me Obama refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance to our flag.
President of the Texas Professional Educators Association, said today: "There is only one group of people who are more politically stupid than teachers; that's the American voter; but don't tell them because they are also too politically stupid to know what you are talking about."
... we have a bankrupt federal government (which 8 years ago was almost out of debt) having to save the ass of a corrupt financial sector (the 2nd time in less than 20 years) due to unregulated greed.
....We are borrowing money from China to pay for a war in Iraq we didn't have any reason at all to start. Congress and our legislatures are bought and paid for on all sides and can't pass anything worthwhile to even begin to deal with the nation's fundamental social and economic problems.
.... Our underclass sees no reason to be anything other than an underclass as long as they get a check. Their kids think the same way and insist upon remaining ignorant. Our entertainment industry popularizes that ignorance. College is no longer affordable.
....As a nation, we've abandoned the idea that a one-earner household should be able to raise a family on one paycheck and have substituted the idea that WalMart and everyone else should pay wages which can't even keep a portion of a family alive.. in order to make WalMart (and the others) "competitive".
Well-off believe it is their moral responsibility to make sure overnment gives them tax breaks the average person never dreamed of having. Wall Street values quarterly earnings over the strategic health of industry. We've just about lost our industrial base.
...We've refused to recognize the urgent need for alternative fuels and the implementation of a solution for that need since 1974 (35 years) when we had our first energy crisis.
...You can't take a plane ride without either doing a strip-tease or be jailed as a terrorist by some of the dumbest people ever employed anywhere.
...The absurd unavailability and cost of Healthcare is bankrupting business and families here while every major western nation in the world has better health care available to all its population and at a price which they all can afford.
....A huge number of our population professes to be Christian but never practices it in their daily business or personal lives. We contribute to preachers who build personal empires of wealth, staggeringly bad taste, opulence and political influence while teaching their flocks to demonize and judge others.
...Our political campaigns are made up of lie upon lie upon lie so we don't have time to ask questions about the serious matters which we should as a nation be immediately confronting.
....The press and "journalism" has deteriorated to the level of The Inquirer, asking "gotcha" questions instead of promoting the revelation of what the candidates are really trying to do (assuming the candidates KNOW what they are trying to do).
...The average person knows less about their heritage of Constitutional rights and responsibilities than one of the guys being interviewed on the street about the Theory Of Relativity by Jay Leno.
...We have abandoned our inspirational leadership to the rest of the world by adopting the methods of torture about which we criticize others. We can't get the truth in a Congressional hearing from the people who are called to testify.
...And our Supreme Court shuts down the steps outlined in the Constitution so one of the candidates can win, prior to the fulfillment of that process.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pretty good stuff from a Republican, albeit a "Log Cabin" one.
Anyway, I still see these three states, with the possible exception of Louisiana, as "must win" states for the Democrats, especially if, as I thnk we can expect, McCain will choose Pawlenty, Romney, or Ridge as his running mate, and possibly put some of the Gore and Kerry states in play.
No polls register GOP pickups since 2000 or 2004, but it seems clear to me that the McCain campaign wants to try in MN, MI, PA, and other traditional Democratic states. And with Romney, he also has a chance in NH, which went to Kerry in 2004 but went to Bush in 2000.
It's yet another reason for Obama to choose Clark. Remember, states like GA, IN, and NC have not voted for the Dems in a long time, so aren't MO, AR, and LA better bets?