The Appalachian Problem

By Peter J. Boyer
Issue: Oct 6

Back when he was considering a run for president, Barack Obama's advisers questioned whether the country was ready to elect a black president. Obama believed it was.
Later, when pundits wondered aloud if Virginians would actually vote for the Democratic candidate, David Mudcat Saunders, also known as the Democrats' "Bubba Coordinator," insisted they would.

"That's what burns me up, when they talk about racism down here in the hills," Saunders said, adding that Virgina was the first state to elect a black governor in 1989.

In the months leading up to the election, however, Saunders worried that Obama's change message wouldn't quite cut it with "hill people."

"They were screwed by the English in Scotland and Ireland way before they came over here and started getting screwed," Saunders said. "They've been screwed since the dawn of time. And you know what? You ain't gonna do anything with them, talkin' about change. You know why. We're all changed out."

The article made you think about how you could make a Primary Colors for the new millenium. You'd give William H. Macy a chance to beef up and play a strawberry blond Jim Webb. And Philip Seymour Hoffman could probably do a mean Mudcat Saunders.