Why Dean Martin - now more than ever - is central to this election.

Hey pallies, now how cool is this...this OhioPlayer dudes understands the importance of our Dino in the upcomin' prez election....our Dino is central to all parts of our lives, and how great to find this dude who knows how truly important our Dino is...if you wanna reads this in it's original form, just click on the tagg of this Dinopost. Dinoreportin', DMP

Why Dean Martin - now more than ever - is central to this election.
by OhioPlayer
Fri Aug 01, 2008 at 09:17:05 AM PDT
Dean Martin, arguably more talented than Frank Sinatra, is from Steubenville, Ohio, right in the heart of Appalachia (including WV, PA, etc.) And according to Dean Martin himself, as he was coming up he tried to imitate the style and grace of the Mills Brothers, trio of black brothers who were instrumental in laying the foundation for many others in entertainment.

OhioPlayer's diary :: ::
Why is this important? Because most white folks - especially those located in Appalachia do not know this small fact; more broadly, to the extent that they are aware of black community as the epicenter of most white mainstream culture, they would adamantly deny such.

These are the same folks who crossed over to vote for Reagan in 1980 of course now known as Reagan Democrats. And because many of them live in OH and PA, Obama must vigorously compete for this group because if he can win either or both states, he wins the election; btw, not knocking Obama strategy to put VA, CO, etc. in play just that I think the former is slightly more important. This is major portion of what McCain is attempting to do with the Spears & Hilton ad, that is portray Obama as a lightweight, glamorous Hollywood elite that folks in Appalachia can not identify with.

And here's the rub - Obama can't really make his case directly to these folks, at least not without some help. I'll explain by way of comparison to Kerry in 2004. Bush actually did the same thing to him and he responded by touring this region with Bruce Springsteen. Only problem with this tactic was that - as many others have pointed out previously - barely 40% of this group, escpecially white males, even voted for Bill Clinton, their Southern cousin. No what Kerry needed to do was motivate the black vote and in a state like OH that means the O'Jays, Bootsie and the Ohio Players (PA covered here as well as the O'Jays part of "Philly soul." Kerry certainly won the overwhelming majority of black voters but he did not get the turnout he needed. Add to this the fact that Bush increased his take of black vote in Ohio from 9% in 2000 to 16% in 2004 and that is his margin of victory.

Clearly Obama has no issue with motivating blacks, as well as young folks, to turn out; indeed, this has been one of his central tenets. Some even argue that this massive voter turnout can put him over the top w/o having to win states like OH and PA. My position is - why risk it? Especially when the campaign has the capacity to pursue both tactics. Thus, Obama needs to do an Appalachia tour with Springsteen and Mellenkamp as cultural surrogates. And selecting Kaine, Bayh, Strickland, Granholm as VP wouldn't hurt either. And the Obama campaign may very well have said tour in the works just waiting to release it after the convention. Whatever the specific plan, sometime in September/October Obama must AGGRESSIVELY go after this area and CONFRONT voters issues, real and perceived.

Tags: how Obama wins Ohio, Barack Obama, Ohio, 2008 (all tags) :: Previous Tag Versions

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