Who’s Running and Who’s Walking?

According to media reports, it seems that Romney, McCain, Clinton and Obama are running.  Huckabee and Edwards are trotting.  With little or no word of the existence of other candidates we must assume they are either walking, crawling, or the guest of honor at a funeral procession.

We have seen corn fields in Iowa embrace the evangelical and the new kid on the block.  For all the debates and stump stops, no one shucked the corn or looked at the kernels.  Iowa was a vote that in retrospect was like a first date. 

New Hampshire, often portrayed as an intellectually stimluated state with a flair for individualism, began to rip away the outer shucks.  The voters were doing their due diligence until the media, once again accepting and selling misinformation, pre-predicted winners before the first votes were cast based on faulty polls…. nine in all.  Do we dare think that misinformation was collected and shared by chance?  A quote from an Arturo Perez-Reverte novel comes to mind.

“Chance?  Permit me to laugh, by God.  That is an explanation that would only satisfy and imbecile.”        

The faces of the voters are about to change yet again.  Michigan is a state filled with thousands of blue collar workers that have been hit hard by poor economic policies over the past decade.  I am more familiar with the South, my home.  That brings us to the South Carolina primary. 

In South Carolina it seems that Huckabee is leading the pack of Bible thumping evangelicals, where it is not an odd occurrence to have someone ask upon first introduction if you have been saved.  If there is any doubt that in the home state of Bob Jones University the evangelicals won’t be rallying around the preacher, let me lay that doubt to rest.  We will only hope Mike Huckabee likes fried chicken and deviled eggs. 

Of course, South Carolina is stereotypically labeled blue collar (that’s a nice way of saying poor) and evangelical (that’s a nice way of saying radical Christian fundamentalist).  That brings us to the Democratic candidates.  The pundits are predicting the traditional black vote will certainly go to Hillary.  Others are saying that it’s Barack’s, because the black population now believe they have a candidate that is viable.  It will be interesting.

One of the odd phenomena of the South is among the black population.  The cohort isn’t as poor as people like to portray.  We have expanded our vision and our socio-economic status among a large portion of the black population.  And that brings me to this point.  As a southerner, I have seen it time and time again.  The black population will fight to help one of their own rise to the top of the American heap.  But, once he has succeeded in the climb, he becomes an Uncle Tom in the minds of the masses and rather than rejoice in his rise, they will be among the first to knock him down to “his place” when he becomes too ”uppity.”  It’s a phenomenon that I have witnessed first hand for three decades.

My question is whether the black vote in South Carolina, and the rest of the South for that matter, will rise above the old fray and put it all on the line by voting for a black candidate or whether they will still think of Obama as a old uncle who will turn on them in the long run. 

Or, will the black vote go to the good mistress of the manor.  I do hope Hillary doesn’t try to affect that pitiful imitation of a Southern accent again.  Her last attempt should have been as much an embarrassment for her as it was offensive to us. 

May I remind all the candidates, most of us do read and write in the South.  And, many of us are university educated with post graduate degrees.  The Research Triangle of North Carolina is a diverse population, the surrounding area boasting among the top in per capita income.  Areas of South Carolina are filled with well educated retirees and business people.  Atlanta is a thriving city and the home of the world’s busiest airport. 

And, may I remind everyone, Florida is not a Southern state except as determined by it’s physical location.

Don’t underestimate the South.  Just because we talk a little slower, don’t take for granted that we think slower.