Reply #22: Thanks for the on-the-scene report!,

[shimmergal]

I'm at least a sixth-generation Hoosier and lived there until about ten years ago. Most of what you posted sounds straight-on. I too am amazed to find MSM pundits listing Indiana in the "possible Dem" category!

But here's some things to keep in mind, and maybe help you win over a few undecideds.

The woman in Seymour may actually have been told that. It happens more often than you think. I go to a liberals' discussion group, and since the one clergyman member died, the remaining regulars except for me are all atheists. Now their belief system doesn't bother me--I'm an Episcopalian with agnostic and pagan subsets of belief--but when they get "turned on" to the topic of religion, even I'm annoyed. It comes across as "Look how smart I am because I don't believe in God." Now of course not even a majority of Democrats are like this, but one or two exposures can really cut deep for the ordinary church-goer.

Perhaps more than most states, Indiana residents inherit their political allegiance. My mother was a Republican, but her political beliefs were based on HER parents', and drawn from the Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt ideals. She was an Eisenhower/Rockefeller republican and couldn't vote for Barry Goldwater because he was too extreme.

Southern Indiana is not thoroughly Republican. That band you mentione across the state's mid-south,
--Seymour-Bedford-Mitchell-- is probably host to more kooky Repubs than some of its other parts. Evansville and some surrounding counties were traditionally Democratic, at least till recently--that southwestern quadrant was known for bitter partisan struggles at election time. I had a magazine delivery route in the 1990s that went around southern Indiana. The people I talked to along the way weren't _nearly_ as upset about Monica-gate as the RW-ers and the MSM were. Their attitudes ranged from "They all do it" to "He's doing an OK job; he should have some perks."

Now possibly the Clintons had the key to more Hoosiers' loyalties than Obama does; because of the race factor especially, I don't know how much may be transferable to Obama. But Biden would be a good drawing card, I'd think. He speaks their language.

Good luck, and thanks for doing all that work! I hope both our states go blue!