Saletan on West Virginia

According to Saletan's in person travelogue to West Virginia, it sounds as though Kerry would be lucky to get any votes.

You'd think that Kerry, who has touted his "band of brothers" in visits to West Virginia, would have won some sympathy from the women at the mall. But you'd be wrong. They call him wishy-washy, a coward, a liar. They say he wavers, flip-flops, and speaks out of both sides of his mouth. Their words echo the ads Bush has run here, but they all claim to have gotten this impression of Kerry from watching the news. Many cite things Kerry tried to have both ways: appropriating $87 billion for Iraq, alleging Vietnam atrocities, throwing away medals at an antiwar protest, and driving an SUV. The litany and the portrayal sound eerily like what these folks heard and thought about Gore four years ago. Kerry has four and a half months to turn it around.

Tons more paragraphs like this. And I think he hits all the pertinent West Virginia highlights. Actually, I hear the same tripe about Kerry from people here in Southern California. I think it's really hard for one person to go to a state and get a true sense of the big picture. Kinda like trying to feel an elephant while wearing a blindfold. Accurate closeup but will you be able to figure out what would be the larger picture?

Fortunately, the polls have all shown the race to be much closer than how he depicts it. I would be much more interested in finding out why this race is so damn close in West Virginia.