what is up with Ark?

[littlewolf]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/05/18/152995033/obama-won-t-carry-arkansas-but-could-he-cost-democrats-the-legislature


President Obama's performance in next Tuesday's Arkansas primary won't be as embarrassing as what happened in West Virginia two weeks ago, when he gave up 41 percent of the vote to someone who happened to be sitting in a federal prison in Texas for embezzlement.
But it may well do more lasting damage to his party.
snip

Obama lost Arkansas by 20 points in 2008 and has virtually no chance of carrying the state this year in the November general election. Even many Democrats, it seems, have never warmed to him.
snip

Despite limited funds and in-state campaigning and robocalling, Wolfe appears poised to cut deeply into Obama's primary vote margin in Arkansas on Tuesday. One poll showed Obama up by only 7 percentage points in the state's conservative 4th congressional district.
snip

Arkansas is the last Southern state remaining where Democrats have held onto their traditional majorities in the Legislature. But Republicans are now within striking distance there as well — thanks, in part, to Obama.
"Republicans won a whole bunch of legislative seats they had never competed in before" in 2010, says Roby Brock, editor of TalkBusiness.net, which conducted the recent 4th District poll. "A lot of that was an anti-Obama vote they took out on people who were on the ballot as a whole."

lots more there .. goes on to say we could lose the legislature ...
but there is more here ... WV a convict gets 41% of the vote .. NC almost 200k
people voted no preference .... NO Freaking PREFERENCE!!!
this is the head of the party ... the President of the United States ...
and a convict gets 41% ... and 200K people in NC vote No preference
and now Ark may go to the GOP in NOV .... WTH ....

[RFKHumphreyObama]

1. To be honest I'm not sure how much this has to do with President Obama

Arkansas has followed most of its southern counterparts in trending Republican for a long time -as the article mentioned it has only voted for Democratic presidential candidates in 1976, 1992 and 1996 over the past forty years. The state legislatures in the South have been falling to Republicans since Reagan's time and many fell during Clinton's time. It's possible that a President Hillary Clinton could have slowed the trend toward the Republicans in Arkansas -or maybe not since Arkansas elected its first Republican Senator since Reconstruction even as Clinton carried the state in 1996 -but the State Legislature was bound to go Republican sooner or later

[littlewolf]

2. I guess what I am getting at

How does a convict get 41% of the vote in WV
against a sitting democratic President ..

how do 200K people in NC vote no preference

there are others .. I just don't
have the numbers in front of me ...

[Lucky Luciano]

3. Are these open primaries where anyone including republics can vote? nt

[littlewolf]

4. in NC nope ... closed primary ...

republicans - have their own primary ...

Indies can vote in either one ....

WV I am not sure ... but I think they are
closed also ...

[Proud Liberal Dem]

5. Racism?

In the South, I imagine that being a Democrat is somewhat different than, say, being one in California. I know that Indiana Dems typically are more of of the "Blue Dog" variety

[littlewolf]

6. I don't know ... the democratic party

has owned the south for decades ...
in NC .. we have had the state legislator
for something like a hundred years ..
until 2010 ...

so I don't know about racism ..

[Arkana]

11. Are you kidding?

You DO know why Lyndon Johnson said "We have just lost the South for a generation" when he signed the Civil Rights Act, right?

It's because the South was the land of Jim Crow, George Wallace, and Orval Faubus. It was--and still is--full of racism and ignorance.

[littlewolf]

12. which is why for decades state legislators

were firmly in the Dem camp ...

[hrmjustin]

7. Because they do not like obama. But some of those could...

...be registered dems who vote gop. But we need to remember some dems don't like him and that is their right. But I will happily vote for him

[JoePhilly]

8. In which counties did those NC folks vote "No Preference"?

And have you ever been to West Virgina?

I'm pretty sure that all the people who voted for that convict are also his blood relatives. Hell, he's probably his own grandfather.

There are plenty of states in which there are racist Dems. Not every Republican is a racist, not every Dem is color blind.

Obama has already won the nomination. Arkansas does not matter. Obama was never going to win it.

Oh in 2012 ... we had a low turn out election in which the most terrified of the racists voted for GOP / Tea Party whack jobs. It was not some sort of referendum on anything. It was angry white people. And as long as Obama is President, they will be angry.

I know, because I'm a 40 something white guy living in NC. And because I look like them, they speak freely in front of me. When I encounter a Dem who's anti-Obama, race is almost always the underlying issue. The black guy has to be 4 times better. Ay good thing Obama has done gets dismissed.

"Killed OBL" ... eh, who cares. Same across the board.

[littlewolf]

9. it seems to be scattered all over ...

every county had between a few hundred to 15K or more
vote no preference ...

now ... upon thinking about it ... they may have been there for the
amendment vote ... and knew President Obama is running unopposed
and so they just checked no preference ... not sure ...
but that is a possibility ...

[Arkana]

10. Who cares?

There are a lot of angry racists in WV and AR who want revenge. I don't give a damn.

The President is still going to be the Democratic nominee and he's not going to win Arkansas or West Virginia.