The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

When I saw this, I thought of Lil B.  The group even comes from B's neck of the woods.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081009/pl_afp/usvoteobamarednecks


SAINT LOUIS, Missouri (AFP) - When Barack Obama's campaign bus made a swing through Missouri in July, the unlikeliest of supporters were waiting for him -- or rather two of them, holding the banner: "Rednecks for Obama."

In backing the first African-American nominee of a major party for the US presidency, the pair are on a grassroots mission to bridge a cultural gap in the United States and help usher their preferred candidate into the White House.

Tony Viessman, 74, and Les Spencer, 60, got politically active last year when it occurred to them there must be other lower income, rural, beer-drinking, gun-loving, NASCAR race enthusiasts fed up with business as usual in Washington.

Viessman had a red, white and blue "Rednecks for Obama" banner made, and began causing a stir in Missouri, which has emerged as a key battleground in the run-up to the November 4 presidential election.

"I didn't expect it would get as much steam and attention as it's gotten," Spencer told AFP on the campus of Washington University in Saint Louis, the state's biggest city and site of last week's vice-presidential debate.

"We believe in him. He's the best person for the job," Viessman, a former state trooper from Rolla, said of Obama, who met the pair briefly on that July day in Union, Missouri.

The candidate bounded off his bus and jogged back towards a roadside crowd to shake hands with the men holding the banner.

"He said 'This is incredible'," Spencer recalled.

It's been an unexpectedly gratifying run, Viessman said.

Rednecks4obama.com claims more than 800,000 online visits. In Denver, Colorado, Viessman and Spencer drew crowds at the Democratic convention, and at Washington University last Thursday they were two of the most popular senior citizens on campus.

"I'm shocked, actually, but excited" that such a demographic would be organizing support for Obama, said student Naia Ferguson, 18, said after hamming it up for pictures behind the banner.

"When most people think 'redneck,' they think conservatives, anti-change, even anti-integration," she said. "But America's changing, breaking stereotypes."

A southern comedian, Jeff Foxworthy, defines the stereotype as a "glorious lack of sophistication".

Philistines or not, he said, most rural southerners are no longer proponents of the Old South's most abhorrent ideology -- racism -- and that workaday issues such as the economy are dominating this year's election.

"We need to build the economy from the bottom up, none of this trickle down business," Spencer said. "Just because you're white and southern don't mean you have to vote Republican."

To an important degree, however, race is still the elephant in the polling booth, experts say, and according to a recent Stanford University poll, Obama could lose six points on election day due to his color.

Racism "has softened up some, but it's still there," Viessman acknowledged from Belmont University, site of Tuesday's McCain-Obama debate in Nashville, Tennessee.

Despite representing the heartland state of Illinois, and having a more working-class upbringing than his Republican rival John McCain, Obama has struggled to shoot down the impression that he is an arugula-eating elitist.

Surely he alienated many rural voters earlier this year when the Harvard-educated senator told a fundraiser that some blue-collar voters "cling to guns or religion".

But Viessman, who says he owns a dozen guns, said Obama "ain't gonna take your guns away."

The South traditionally votes Republican -- victories for southerners Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter were exceptions -- but with less than a month to election day, four states in or bordering the South are considered toss-ups: Florida, Missouri, North Carolina and Virginia.

Viessman says he'd like to think his grassroots movement could sway enough people in small-town America to make a difference.

"There's lots of other rednecks for Obama too," he said. "And the ones that's not, we're trying our best to convince them."

I was Surprised to see Obama make a swing through here....Hillary did a campaighn stop here,whne she was on the last leg of her Campaign..and John Edwards came through in 2004.....Democrats usually don't normally make swings through this part of Missouri.....

That Tour in July,He flew into Springfield,stayed the night ,then took a bus up towards St. Louis..Making stops along the way...It was amazing to see some of the ass backwards farms fawn over him...He made quite an impression on them (well according to everyone that talked to him,in interviews afterwards) .Now enough to change a vote...I'm not sure...

Joe Biden is going to be here tommorrow....

Good Article Jim..Thanks for sharing....Yeah I guess you could say I'm a redneck for Obama... :D

Thats actually encouraging to see.

^^^^

QFT

Anyone remember Eddie Murphy's old routine about Jesse running for President?  Seeing as how that was one of the memorable and funny albums of my life I always have quotes from this concert running through my head. This whole Redneck thread reminds me of the Jesse thing. This may not be funny today but was hilarious at the time.

Shit's changing though, we got black politicians now.

   
                   
Who's that boy... Harold Washington ?

   
                   
Harold Washington said: "Fuck it !"
And won.

   
                   
I know he's still sitting around going:
"I really won the motherfucker?"

   
                   
And Jesse Jackson seen that shit and said:
"Fuck it, imma run too, fuck it"

   
                   
"Jesse you can win" I see these brothers going.

   
                   
"You can win Jesse, coz you're bigger than
motherfucking Harold Washington."

   
                   
"Fuck Harold Washington."

   
                   
"Fuck him man, run for president."

   
                   
And Jesse going: "Yeah, fuck that shit."

   
                   
I've seen Jesse in the gym, working
the fuck out, too, for getting into shape.

   
                   
You know he got a chance he can win.
White dudes like to do shit like that... ...vote for the wrong dude as a goof.

   
                   
They get drunk and shit and go like:
"Let's vote for Jesse Jackson !"

   
                   
"I just voted for Jesse Jackson !"

   
                   
And next day would be
like this: "He fuckin' won?"

   
                   
Jesse knows that shit can happen. He's gettin in shape.
I've seen him running round the track and shit.

   
                   
I said: "Why the fuck you getting in shape like this?"
He says: ""cos I'm gonna be the first black president."  "I have to give speeches like this: (runing back and forth) My fellow americans !  As your president I feel ...

And dude with a rifle be going: "He won't stand still !"

I ain't hooked up into all that racism shit. My motto is, life just be happy with the motherfuckers