Nevermind Kerry camp... why do rank-file Dems continue writing off AR???

Its been tied all year according to EV.com and other reputable sites... UNLIKE many other so-called "key" states like Ohio. when will (some) people get over their irrational fear of appealing to Southerners?

Do you REALLY want to wake up Nov. 3 and find out Arkansas could have made the difference, the way Gore wrote off Ohio because of mythical "internals"?

We are not talking about a state here that has ever posted a huge or sustained Bush lead... we're talking about a turnout state where Kerry has consistently paced * by a point as undecideds flock to either camp!

Now that NH is on our side without Nader
all we need is 1more state, just 1more and the election is ours
to win
Ohio will be a plus, it will be a landslide with Ohio
and if we get AR then more the better!!

we are going to win Arkansas. And I don't believe that the Kerry campaign is pulling out. They are probably putting a different ad buy on within a few days.

She visited the Campaign office in Little Rock and said that it was not up to par to previous efforts here. Granted, Clinton was from Arkansas, but still! Arkansas is Kerry's for the taking! Get yer butt down here!!!!

I wouldn't be surprised Nader isn't still doing well in Ark given the seeming inattention from the supposedly "populist" invigorated new campaign. Perhaps Kerry was relying on Clinton to mobilize his troops to staff the office, and Clinton got sick, or distracted, or disinterested in helping out for some reason, perhaps due to the delayed reaction to SBVT? Hmm. I bet he said to Kerry, "If you want me to put my all into this effort, you'll need to listen to me and stop listening to Shrum."

Still, DFA leaving Little Rock... and Dean was supposedly the liberal who wanted to engage Southerners and finesse the three G's... or were they just regrouping or did they buy into the GOP hype? I think GOP is sufficiently scered about Ark that they will not even MENTION any doubts but will work double time to frighten Democrats off from Arkansas with tales of massing hordes of silent majority voters descending on polling booths to the tune of dueling banjos... :-)

That's a guess, but I understand that is important in AR. Sen Prior (Dem) won on those issues.

Saving money till then.

the dems in these areas can get active. and get active members, elect dems ect........and build the party. i agree, i want the dems to infilterate the south, not shy away from them, not give up on them, they are so dems, they have just been conditioned by the falwells and robertsons

We are going canvassing Saturday.

Interesting thing about Arkansas - the majority of our state and local legislators are Dem. Also, 3/4 of our congressional delegation and both Senators.

We've just gotten lost in the "The Bush has won the South" bit, which is further from the truth.
I've donated to Kerry's campaign and I've done what I can to get the word out. All I ask is the man make a single trip here to show us his appreciation.

McCain has got that one won even before the first vote is cast.

But I agree, the state should not be ignored because the six points could make the difference and AR almost always shows up white on the red and blue maps.

They know LOTS more than me, you, and everyone on this site combined.

But, it's still fun to complain about stuff! Keeps the juices flowing!! :)

I don't know about Arkansas' Senate race or whether it's competitive. I wonder if Clinton's surgery slowed down the efforts there. I'm sure they hadn't counted on it.

Always did have a problem with the 'A' state initials.

And Jan Judy is trying to take the only Repub congressional seat from Arkansas away.

The Senate race is over, though.

in Missouri, Arkansas & a couple of other places and I don't think Kerry is writing anything off.

native son Wes and self-made southerner JRE stumping. don't get this at all.

I mean Jebus, not only is it a TIED STATE, it's the ONLY small state that makes the difference in the Electoral College. Margin is 10. ARK has 6 electoral votes. New Hampshire has 4. Get the picture?

Nevada... West Virginia... New Mexico, all of em, 5 electoral votes.

Assume Bush takes Ohio, steals Florida, and...

(Remember, UNLIKE Arkansas, Ohio is NOT tied, it is unpredictably hovering around a small 4% Bush lead all year long, with Kerry occasionally projected to win big depending on turnout in a few areas.)

Compared to Ohio, Florida AND Arkansas have been truly tied all year. That's why I have great respect for any poll that shows FL and AR as the two states to shake out as the genuine tossups.

Suppose Bush takes Wisconsin (10) but Kerry makes up for it with a couple of small states. A scenario which could VERY easily happen. Without Arkansas, he could STILL lose and end up with 269 EV!!! See what I'm saying?

I hope someone from Kerry camp is reading this.

Why not send Edwards into Arkansas with Clinton, for heavens sake??

IN FACT, send Kerry in there for starters, then have Clinton make a SURPRISE appearance, which will make a BIG SPLASH in the media (especially in the south and with Dr. Phil female voters interested in Clinton's health!) buck up supporters in the audience who are less than enthusiastic about the WASPy Kerry. They will then tell everyone about it and have everyone in town come out for a second Kerry rally with Clinton AND Edwards.

Take it from there with Edwards and Clinton together stumping the state, and Kerry can go back to the Midwest and that's all Kerry needs to do to help things out.

Clarkies, Kerryites, are you listening??????

And no, I didn't think of this strategy, Mark Twain did, in Huckleberry Finn!

(Of course, HIS second appearance was cancelled, and they were run out of town on a rail, but...)

To those who said "I trust the Kerry camp" --

get a grip. They are human beings who narrowly avoided getting fired for misleading Kerry on the SVT response. Now all of a sudden Clintonistas are involved and one of their first recommendations is to drop AR completely like a fresh turd. How convenient.

I am suspicious of Clinton's motives if he has chosen to use health as an excuse not to stump at all for Kerry, when the one region of the South that looks competitive (besides Virginia) is Arkansas and the Memphis area of TN.

Edwards has been through the state a few times and I think it's good territory for him and Kerry. But Kerry himself needs to get down here again. Not seeing many Kerry-Edwards signs where I'm at, but a campaign office just opened down here in SW ark. And I'd love the idea of having Clinton storm through the state in the two weeks before the election.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=536&ncid=536&e=5&u=/ap/20040923/ap_on_el_pr/kerry_bowing_out

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Arizona, Arkansas and Louisiana are unlikely to see Kerry ads unless there is a major shift in the campaign's dynamics. Missouri is still the subject of debate inside the campaign, with some advisers pushing to advertise in the traditional swing state.

Major shift??? Arkansas is his for the taking!!! Does this mean we have little chance seeing Kerry in person?
I don't understand this. The state is more split then they realize...
:shrug:

of bullshit. They may want Bush to THINK they have given up here, but NO WAY. We are canvassing this weekend in Beebe.

1. Kerry campaign ops are not proven to be skilful enough for that.

2. I genuinely believe Clintonites, what with delusions of Hillary 08, are not enthusiastic enough to get the Big Dog out of his sickbed to fight for Kerry in Arkansas as Kerry was hoping for. Heart surgery gives everyone an excuse to write off the state.

3. NE liberal Dems (many of whom are to the right of Arkansas economically) too afraid of Guns, God and Gays, as other posters here demonstrated.

4. Dean For America local chapter disbanded in Little Rock WEEKS ago.

And last but not least:

5. IF KERRY'S TRYING TO STEAL Ark OUT FROM UNDER *,
HE CAN'T DO SO because his strategy in Ark relies on Clinton.

If Clinton appears in the state three weeks before election, Reps will know it is in play. If it's the last week before the election it'll be too late to matter.

One final word, "unless there is a major shift in dynamics" is very ominous words from within the Kerry camp, suggesting that this is NOT planted information to mislead Repubs. Instead, it sounds like the Pollyannas of August inside the campaign, the people who said Kerry didn't need the south to win, have fallen into a deep depression and are dragging the campaign down with them.

I notice, not alot of people here seem to care about this issue.

They seem to think Arkansas will go Bush no matter what, yet Kerry will pick up other, larger states where the margin for B* has been consistently greater.

Dems can win Arkansas with less of an expenditure than they can in other states.

And while Kerry may have decided not to buy ads this week, what about the DNC, the 527s, etc?

I heard her speak this summer and thought she was great.

Same for NJ. Kerry had a ten point lead before the convention, but since then he and Bush are neck in neck. Most of the state is split down the middle, except for the township I live in. Which essentially means that if it stays this way, my township could decide NJ. Well, our local Dem. club pretty much is giving up. No big signs in our twp. and they aren't double checking at the polls like they used to. I think EVERY states in the entire country need to be accounted for-not just the swing states. If they give up on the ones they think are in the bag, they might just lose them when November rolls around.