The Coalfields Will Decide The Election

Four more years of the last four years and there'll be nobody working there.  That's why it's so important to get out the vote in Buchanan, Dickenson, Russell, Lee, Tazewell, and Wise counties.  The future of Southwest Virginia is at stake.

And let the message go forth: You and your brethren in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Kentucky may very well make the difference in November:

Coal: Obama's Kryptonite
By Jim Ellis, The American Thinker

In a presidential election that appears headed for a photo finish, it may be coal that transforms itself into political black gold for Republican nominee Mitt Romney and into kryptonite for President Barack Obama. While the president's economic policies have devastated several industries, it is the coal producers who are strategically located and have the opportunity and ability to become a real force in this campaign.

The main reason behind the mineral's potential election-determining power is that most of the coal-producing voters reside in traditionally Democratic counties and precincts. Ohio and Virginia, and possibly Pennsylvania, are potentially so electorally close that either candidate losing a significant share of his own party's vote could cost him that particular state and thereby the White House itself. Therefore, the fundamental unanswered question is whether President Obama can neutralize some of his past actions in the critical energy-producing states. This becomes especially difficult when fully comprehending that Obama's Cap & Trade legislation has already proven itself politically lethal to Democrats.

You will remember that the president's very first major legislative initiative attempted to make Cap & Trade the law of the land. This so-called "energy equalization" concept is economically devastating to coal-producing regions, and most of the local congressmen who supported the measure were summarily dismissed from office during the midterm election. Obama's bill passed the House of Representatives under Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but Majority Leader Harry Reid couldn't muster enough support among his Senate colleagues to even hold a vote.

In the subsequent 2010 election, coal-producing states such as West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania defeated a combined thirteen congressional Democrats -- an event that led the way to Republicans recapturing the House majority. Of this baker's dozen of losing members, nine voted for Cap & Trade. West Virginia Rep. Alan Mollohan, a 28-year senior member, lost badly in the Democratic primary directly after supporting C&T. Virginia's Rick Boucher, another "yes" vote on the controversial legislation, who was also first elected in 1982 and served in a key position on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, lost to a Republican in the general election.

Will Mitt Romney receive the unified support of the normally Democratic coal constituency? Or can the president find some way to redeem himself with these people and rebound? The answers to these two key questions, to be revealed just weeks from now, could well define the outcome of the presidential election and put the nation on a decided new course for the next four years. The coal potential, along with synergy coming from other single and multi-issue groups, underscores that the final determining factors in this election campaign have yet to occur. [link]

How ironic it would be if Obama's effort to bankrupt the coal industry destroyed his presidency. How delightfully ironic.

But the only way that hope becomes a reality is if every coal miner - and every coal miner's son, daughter, father, mother, uncle, and spouse gets to the polls in November.

Coal may very well be the deciding issue in 2012.

Turn 'em on. Turn him out. Keep hope alive.