In this week’s cover story, Matt Labash spends some time with Dave “Mudcat” Saunders, who argues that the Democrats’ path to victory runs through the Appalachian Mountains:
I decide to fly Mudcat’s Webb Coalition idea by some skeptics. One afternoon at lunch, we are joined by his Republican friend and committed McCain voter Tommy Anderton, who calls himself “Mudcat’s haberdasher.” Tommy owns the downtown Roanoke store–featuring an oversized Rush Limbaugh banner on its wall–where Mudcat buys all his Carhartt shirts and pants. Sipping our iced teas, with Tommy in seersucker slacks and a navy blazer, Mudcat goes to work on him. What would happen, he asks Tommy, if Obama sat down before ten white Appalachian males and properly explained the problems their communities share, paying respect to the culture, talking of building coalitions and floating similar policies to transform rural and urban America? Says Tommy, “And what magic drug are you going to give Obama to make him say that?” Mudcat tells Tommy to put that aside and asks if he thinks Obama could turn two of the ten. “No,” says Tommy. “Could he turn one of them?” asks Mudcat. “Yes,” says Tommy. “If he turns one of them,” says Mudcat, satisfied, “he wins the election.” It’s Mudcat Math: Turn one out of ten Appalachian male voters into an Obama supporter, and you’ve not only added 10 percent of the white male vote to the Democratic column but slashed the Republicans’ share of it by 10 percent. “It’s all about twofers, Brotha.” Mudcat admits it probably won’t happen, but asks, What if it did? “Y’know Mudcat,” says Tommy, “If. If the Pilgrims would’ve shot a cat, what would we be eating for Thanksgiving?”
For those skeptical that Obama could win with this strategy, consider that in 2004, only 27 percent of white male Virginians voted for John Kerry, as he lost the state to George Bush by 10 percentage points. In 2006, Jim Webb won his Senate race with only 38 percent of white male voters. As Mudcat says, it’s all about twofers.
