Where Obama has no hope Humiliating primary results in Kentucky and Arkansas prove that, in some states, Obama-phobia still reigns 
 
 There’s a large swath of rural America, extending from somewhere in Oklahoma up into West Virginia, where Barack Obama never had a chance, and it really showed last night. In Arkansas, the other state to hold its primary yesterday, the results were only slightly less humbling to Obama, who defeated an actual human-being candidate -- a Tennessee lawyer named John Wolfe -- by a 58.4 to 41.6 percent spread, with more than a third of the state’s 75 counties siding with the challenger. Back then, Obama was crushed by Hillary Clinton in West Virginia by 41 points – even though it was clear by primary day that he was on his way to being the nominee. Perhaps Obama’s race is one of several markers (along with his name, his background, the never-ending Muslim rumors, and his status as the “liberal” candidate in 2008) that low-income white rural voters use to associate him with a national Democratic Party that they believe has been overrun by affluent liberals, feminists, minorities, secularists and gays – people and groups whose interests are being serviced at the expense of their own. The good news for Obama is that this probably doesn’t say much about what will happen in November. It’s not just on the presidential level.
– President Obama continued his lousy run last night in what Politico calls his "region of doom," a swath it defines as the "Upper South" that includes Appalachia. Obama's weak performances in Arkansas and Kentucky, of course, follow his close race against a felon in West Virginia. What gives? Two takes: Jay Cost, Weekly Standard: Liberals say it's racism, but that's "mostly partisan claptrap." The real reason has to do with how the Democratic Party has changed. It used to be "a working class coalition of urban workers and rural farmers" until it developed a "New Left ethos—turning decidedly leftward not only from cultural conservatism but also on middle class, quality of life issues (feminism, environmentalism, consumer rights, etc) that are of much more concern to 'enlightened' liberals in the big cities than rural voters in Arkansas."  Steve Kornacki, Salon: Chalking it up entirely to race "may be an oversimplification," although he notes that Obama fared miserably in the region in 2008 against Hillary Clinton. "Perhaps Obama’s race is one of several markers (along with his name, his background, and the never-ending Muslim rumors, his status as the 'liberal' candidate in 2008) that low-income white rural voters use to associate him with a national Democratic Party that they believe has been overrun by affluent liberals, feminists, minorities, secularists and gays—people and groups whose interests are being serviced at the expense of their own."