Telegraph UK: America Hates Hillary Clinton and Co

They call it flyover country. These are the parts of the United States that the pundits and prognosticators of American politics see just occasionally - and usually from several thousand feet. It is a land where people shop at Wal-Mart, eat at Dairy Queen, work two jobs to make ends meet and have a Bible at home. They can decide on their vote with the help of talk radio, cable television and the internet - or from a combination of rumour, scraps of hard information and gut feeling.

Iowa and New Hampshire are the early-voting states into which the east-coast campaign "bubble" bounces every four years. They provide the stage for the opening acts. But it is in flyover country where the 2008 presidential election will be won and lost.

"There's less hustle and bustle here than on the coasts and a different outlook on life," said Marla Russ, a secretary and part-time policewoman at a football game in Weatherford, Oklahoma. "There's pride in the land and trust for each other. Things are still done on a handshake."

So is Hillary Clinton the "polarising" figure we hear so much of in the media? Can only a Democrat win in 2008? Is America ready to elect its first female or black president? Has the letdown of the Bush years left the average Joe Schmoe yearning for the Clintons?

With a year to go before the country votes for its 44th president, The Daily Telegraph embarked on its "Crossing America" project to find out. The answers that Julian Simmonds, photographer and videographer, and I got were often surprising. They provide little comfort for Mrs Clinton but not much more for any other politician. Although few people have no opinion about the 2008 candidates, the election has yet to grip the American imagination. And for most, their final decision remains a long way away.

---EOE---

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/24/wamerica124.xml&CMP=ILC-mostviewedbox

bible belt is full of Talibanlike machine heads. And they're all full of shit.

clearly makes them inferior to us members of the wise and well-educated elite class. They should not even be allowed to vote.

:sarcasm:

;-)

From the land of Wal-Mart, two jobs to make ends meet, and Dairy Queen (I fully identify with this):


I believe someone like John Edwards, Joe Biden, or even a Bill Richardson, will do rather well on the flyover land.