BCT Editorial – 11/7/08

This page was last updated on November 15, 2008.

Power hitters; Editorial; Beaver County Times; November 7, 2008.

The editorial subtitle is “Rust Belt states show they still have a lot of clout.”

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“Forget about the much-ballyhooed Sun Belt. It’s the much-maligned Rust Belt that is the powerhouse when it comes to deciding presidential elections.

“Take a look at Tuesday’s Electoral College map. President-elect Barack Obama would not have won if he had not cleaned up in the so-called Rust Belt states.”

[RWC] Take a closer look and you find the vast majority of the map is “red.” What swings the “Rust Belt” states into the lefty corner is the concentration of population centers. You see, lefties tend to attract other lefties and accumulate in high-density population centers they inevitably run into bankruptcy. Do cities like Cleveland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, et cetera ring a bell?

“Obama picked up 117 electoral votes in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. With the exception of Indiana, he won each state by a comfortable margin.

“Although this is Big Ten country, these states have more in common than politics and sports.

“With the exception of Iowa, every state touches one or more of the Great Lakes, something that could prove to be very important if they can build on their commonality to leverage their election clout in Washington.

“The groundwork for this coalition is already in place in the form of the Great Lakes Compact, which bans the diversion of water to places outside the region. The pact was agreed to by the eight states and two Canadian provinces that border the Great Lakes, and it was approved by Congress and signed into law by President Bush earlier this year.”

[RWC] Hmm, maybe oil-producing states need to do the same thing.

“The region needs to present a united front on other issues, especially infrastructure. They have real clout, especially in the House, where they account for almost one-fourth of the membership.

“They also have natural political allies in the states from New England, the Mid-Atlantic (Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and New York) and the West Coast (California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington).”

[RWC] “Natural political allies.” Translation: Other lefties.

“These states represent America’s future, and the Republican Party paid a dear price Tuesday for aligning itself so closely to the Sun Belt states and their populist culture. If the GOP doesn’t broaden its appeal, it could be in real trouble as a national party.”

[RWC] You’ll note the editorial didn’t describe what it meant by “populist culture.”

By the way, a look at the electoral map shows the “Sun Belt” covers a contiguous area from Georgia and South Carolina in the southeast to Arizona in the southwest and to Idaho and Montana in the northwest, and let’s not forget Alaska.