Presidential elections in West Virginia and the Teletubbies

[buritobr]

1932-1996: The democrats won every presidential election in West Virginia except the ones in which there was national republican landslide

1997: The Teletubbies were aired on television for the first time

2000-today: The republicans won every presidential election in West Virginia

[chibul]

I was watching Karl Rove talk about that. He says that republicans could have won that state years earlier, it's just that republicans never bothered in the past to set their sites on West Virginia.

[OSR stands with Israel]

I was watching Karl Rove talk about that. He says that republicans could have won that state years earlier, it's just that republicans never bothered in the past to set their sites on West Virginia.

It’s cause there wasn’t any election really before 2000 that was really close enough that putting effort to flip 5 EV was anywhere near worth it .

[Intell]

I was watching Karl Rove talk about that. He says that republicans could have won that state years earlier, it's just that republicans never bothered in the past to set their sites on West Virginia.

I don’t buy that for the simple reason that other mining communities were solidly democratic in 1988. In 2000 they swung heavily to Bush (especially those ones with less mining done by people).

[Redban]

I was watching Karl Rove talk about that. He says that republicans could have won that state years earlier, it's just that republicans never bothered in the past to set their sites on West Virginia.

I don’t buy that for the simple reason that other mining communities were solidly democratic in 1988. In 2000 they swung heavily to Bush (especially those ones with less mining done by people).

Is it possible those other mining communities swung R for the same reason that West Virginia did? That the Republicans pre-2000 didn’t put resources into those areas because they didn’t realize they had potential-voters there?

Karl Rove compared West Virginia to Virginia, the way Virginia was so solidly Democrat from 2008. He says they got lucky when Kerry didn’t bother to put resources in VA in 2004. Sometimes, we don’t know which states are purple until the opposition starts to go for those places.

[OSR stands with Israel]

I was watching Karl Rove talk about that. He says that republicans could have won that state years earlier, it's just that republicans never bothered in the past to set their sites on West Virginia.

I don’t buy that for the simple reason that other mining communities were solidly democratic in 1988. In 2000 they swung heavily to Bush (especially those ones with less mining done by people).

Is it possible those other mining communities swung R for the same reason that West Virginia did? That the Republicans pre-2000 didn’t put resources into those areas because they didn’t realize they had potential-voters there?

Karl Rove compared West Virginia to Virginia, the way Virginia was so solidly Democrat until 2008. He says they got lucky when Kerry didn’t bother to put resources in VA in 2004. Sometimes, we don’t know which states are purple until the opposition starts to go for those places.

Obama wouldn’t have won Virginia in 2008 without the crash

[Sumner 1868]

Excellent research buritobr! Speaking of which, have you ever wondered why Utah was the only state Ford exceeded 60 percent? I suspect it's because the Donny and Marie Osmond show debuted on January 23, 1976.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donny_%26_Marie_(1976_TV_series)

[Pericles]

I was watching Karl Rove talk about that. He says that republicans could have won that state years earlier, it's just that republicans never bothered in the past to set their sites on West Virginia.

I don’t buy that for the simple reason that other mining communities were solidly democratic in 1988. In 2000 they swung heavily to Bush (especially those ones with less mining done by people).

Is it possible those other mining communities swung R for the same reason that West Virginia did? That the Republicans pre-2000 didn’t put resources into those areas because they didn’t realize they had potential-voters there?

Karl Rove compared West Virginia to Virginia, the way Virginia was so solidly Democrat until 2008. He says they got lucky when Kerry didn’t bother to put resources in VA in 2004. Sometimes, we don’t know which states are purple until the opposition starts to go for those places.

Obama wouldn’t have won Virginia in 2008 without the crash

Obama won Virginia by 6.3% while winning the nationwide popular vote by 7.3%. So I can see the case for it going for McCain, but I think Obama would have won the popular vote by a few points even without the crash and so flipped Virginia (the main impact was it boosting Dems down-ballot so they got a huge House majority and managed to have a filibuster-proof Senate majority).