Southern Whites Not Impressed By Richie Rich Mormon Snob

It's not a matter of opinion that the reactionary wing of the Democratic Party, the Blue Dogs, were rejected by Democratic voters and are -- despite the frantic efforts of "ex"-Blue Dog Steve Israel to prop them up-- becoming extinct. They lost over half their members in the Great Blue Dog Apocalypse of 2010 which dragged the whole House Democratic caucus down to defeat. But the House Democrats learned nothing and are setting up the same scenario for the future by trying to elect more conservative Democrats, Blue Dogs and New Dems who will vote with the GOP and, eventually, be rejected by Democratic voters. Nancy Pelosi may insist she picked Israel because of his "reptilian" traits, but she should fire him because of his lack of strategic vision and his gross incompetence. The Blue Dogs, richly funded by corporate interests now have more campaign cash than candidates to spend it on! (They've actually spent some of it on TV spots for "friendly" Republicans, one of whom is running against progressive Democrat Sue Thorn in West Virginia (who, not coincidentally, Steve Israel has adamantly refused to help win a very winnable seat).

These are sad times for the Blue Dog Democrats-- who once made up almost 20 percent of the House Democratic caucus-- especially in North Carolina, where one retired this year rather than face re-election, and two others, Representatives Mike McIntyre and Larry Kissell-- are facing long re-election odds.

Mr. Kissell has tried to insulate himself from President Obama by staying away from the Democratic National Convention in his home state this week, which Republicans immediately mocked, even sending a car to his campaign headquarters in Concord on Wednesday morning to highlight the fact that the convention was a mere 20 miles away. (Mr. Kissell did not appear for the ride.)

Of the 24 Blue Dogs left in the House, several have already lost in a primary bid or are now facing uphill fights in Congressional districts newly drawn that favor Republicans.

Notorious right-wing operative Jordan Sekulow did an OpEd for the Washington Post claiming the national Democratic Party discriminates against people of faith in general and Blue Dogs in particular. In an appeal aimed primarily at traditional Southern whites, he wrote, "How could a pro-life American support the Democrat Party anymore? How could an American who believes faith is important to our history and in our lives, cast a ballot for a party that boos God? And how in good conscience could an American who sees Israel as our most important ally in the turbulent Middle East vote for a party that deletes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel from its platform? Does anyone believe the voice votes were even legitimate? By volume, this is a party that wanted to keep God out and delete Jerusalem. There were no complaints, no boos, about the platform’s endorsement of taxpayer-funded abortion on demand."

But Romney's campaign, which has blundered into an ineffectual appeal to the Republican base-- as though he were still trying to win the nomination-- has not impressed southern whites to the degree he would have needed to in order to win the election. They don't trust him or like him.

Sheryl Harris, a voluble 52-year-old with a Virginia drawl, voted twice for George W. Bush. Raised Baptist, she is convince-- despite all evidence to the contrary-- that President Barack Obama, a practicing Christian, is Muslim.

So in this year's presidential election, will she support Mitt Romney? Not a chance.

"Romney's going to help the upper class," said Harris, who earns $28,000 a year as activities director of a Lynchburg senior center. "He doesn't know everyday people, except maybe the person who cleans his house."

She'll vote for Obama, she said: "At least he wasn't brought up filthy rich."

White lower- and middle-income voters such as Harris are wild cards in this vituperative presidential campaign. With only a sliver of the electorate in play nationwide, they could be a deciding factor in two southern swing states, Virginia and North Carolina.

Reuters/Ipsos polling data compiled over the past several months shows that, across the Bible Belt, 38 percent of these voters said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who is "very wealthy" than one who isn't. This is well above the 20 percent who said they would be less likely to vote for an African-American.

In Lynchburg, many haven't forgotten Romney's casual offer to bet Texas Governor Rick Perry $10,000 or his mention of his wife's "couple of Cadillacs." Virginia airwaves are saturated with Democratic ads hammering Romney's Cayman Islands investments and his refusal to release more than two years of tax returns.

...Focusing on 11 states from Virginia and North Carolina to Texas and Oklahoma, the Reuters/Ipsos polling project canvassed 8,690 people in households with incomes under $55,000 a year-- just above the U.S. median.

Non-Hispanic whites in this bracket have skewed Republican for more than three decades, and they prefer the GOP nominee to Obama by 46 percent to 29 percent. However, as Romney launches a post-convention ad blitz, those numbers could signal trouble for his campaign. Strategists in both parties figure that to offset the president's expected landslide among an expanding electorate of blacks and Hispanics-- Obama won 80 percent of minority votes in 2008-- Romney must garner more than 60 percent of the white vote overall.

In Virginia, polls show the candidates virtually tied. The state's 5.9 percent unemployment rate, well below the 8.1 percent national average, works in Obama's favor. Overall, 35 percent of the electorate is black, Hispanic or Asian.

Large swaths of northern Virginia, which includes Washington, D.C. suburbs, and the Tidewater region, with its heavy military presence, see the federal government as more friend than enemy.

In Lynchburg, a city of 76,000 in south central Virginia, Old and New South collide as downtown's Victorian gingerbread homes yield to high-tech suburban factories. On Main Street, a pawnbroker displays racks of shotguns across from a marble-and-stainless steel bakery offering creme brulée cupcakes. Several times a day, Appalachian coal trains, more than 100 cars long, wind through town.

The city is best known as headquarters of an evangelical empire: Thomas Road Baptist Church, with 25,000 members, founded by the late Reverend Jerry Falwell, and its fast-growing offshoot, Liberty University.

At Liberty's May commencement, Romney, a Mormon, sought to stake out common ground with fundamentalist Christians. Without directly mentioning the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, as the Mormon church is formally known, he told the crowd of 34,000: "People of different faiths, like yours and mine ... can meet in service, in shared moral convictions about our nation stemming from a common worldview."

According to Reuters/Ipsos polling data, however, 35 percent of voters overall, and the same proportion of lower- and middle-income white Bible Belt voters, say they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who is Mormon.

Many evangelicals who would normally vote Republican say they view Mormonism as a cult.

Several of those interviewed in Lynchburg were devotees of the TV series Big Love and Sister Wives, about polygamous Mormon families. They were unaware that the Mormon Church long ago renounced polygamy.

"Mormons don't believe like we believe," said Dianna McCullough, a retired factory worker, as she tossed salad in a Tree of Life Ministries soup kitchen. "Like the wives-- Romney's probably got more than one."

Still, she is undecided in the election. "The gay marriage thing hurts Obama," she said. "It's Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve."

While Romney fights to shore up his crumbling base, Obama is expanding his own, wondering if he could actually win in Arizona, a state Democrats haven't taken since 1948 when Truman beat Dewey there by 9.97%.