Are we there yet?

West Virginia politics confuse me. For most of the twentieth century the Mountain State had a strong legacy as a blue state. Even now its current governor, both its senators, and two of three house reps are all democrats. So people outside the state were a little surprised when Dubya eked out a victory there in 2000, and then repeated the feat in 2004. Apparently when your state economy rests on coal then your identity rests on contradictions. Strong unions and big energy anyone? Yikes.

All of this is by way of introduction because I didn’t know diddly about West Virginia politics until we happened to be there as the democratic primary police kicked in the state’s door. In the course of 48 hours Gwen and I went to one Hillary and two Obama events (because the first one was sold out). To be honest, seeing them in person is no more revealing than seeing them on TV. But worthy of note: Hillary is skilled at picking out individuals in a room full of screaming people and forging a personal rapport, while Obama appears even younger in person and is a damn good looker.

More interesting than the candidates themselves are the circuses they bring with them. Hillary held a town meeting event at a high school in the state capital of Charleston. She stacked the deck with a gymnasium full of students, the school band, and big hand-painted banners of support that were definitely too neat to be done by anyone but her campaign team. The event seemed to go well for her until the clock struck three and all the students filed out on cue. Unfortunately she wasn’t quite done. Sad. The event was wrapped up pretty quickly.

Obama seems to have much more support in West Virginia. His first event in Charleston reached capacity, and his second, in the southern city of Beckley, was held in a huge convention center. He’s got an entire economy built on his campaign, more than a dozen vendors of bootlegged Obama gear followed him to both events and hawked their wares in the parking lot. Serious rock star effect. Kind of like a Phish concert except that most of the vendors are younger black men.

I came away from both events more tired than anything else. This process has been drawn out far too long. Go democratic process and all… but I’m really looking forward to a united party throwing its weight around in the big game. On a purely superficial level, both candidates are smart, eloquent, and present a super slick front. I hope we don’t get distracted with internal squabbling. Blugh. Eyes on the prize! (And it’s not the democratic nomination).