XPost: alt.politics.bush, alt.politics.usa.republican, alt.politics.democrats.d   
   XPost: talk.politics.misc   
   From: FranzKafka@Oceania.WhiteHouse.GOV   
      
   R. David Steele  wrote in inimitable   
   style:   
      
   > Without the "common man", those you call rednecks, no one can   
   > win.  They make up 70% of the voters.   
      
   Rednecks do NOT make up 70% of the U.S. vote.   
      
   You probably want to say is that 70% of people who can be described as   
   rednecks will vote for Bush, which is in the story posted here.  But that   
   is not the same thing as them making up 70% of the vote.   
      
   If they vote at all, the proportion of white men who have finished a   
   number of years of school greater than the number of cylinders that they   
   have in their racing cars is a small proportion of the eligible voters.   
      
   Indeed, we have one right winger posting here who claims----based up his   
   reading of "exit" polls-----that those who have finished college tend to   
   vote Republican more than Democrat, while those with advanced degrees and   
   those with high school diplomas tend to vote Democrat more than   
   Republican.   
      
   Not that I subscribe to that data.  I only report what has been claimed,   
   one right winger contradicting another.   
      
   > On Sun, 15 Feb 2004 18:55:14 GMT, "Winston Smith, American   
   > Patriot"  wrote:   
   >   
   >|Bush's problem is that NASCAR is not strictly a sport loved by   
   >|ignorant white southerners (like himself) any longer (some people   
   >|dispute whether GW is really a southerner, not whether he's ignorant).   
   >|   
   >|It seems quite a few of other ethnic groups love watching cars go   
   >|around in a circle and hoping to see chassises do somersaults, body   
   >|panels flying off, and the driver climbs out, unstraps his helmet, and   
   >|raises his hand to say, "I'm OK y'all!"   
   >|   
   >|God, doncha love good ole fashion American technology some of whose   
   >|advances came about because moonshiners wanted to outrun federal   
   >|agents enforcing excise tax collection??   
   >|   
   >|------------------------------------------------------   
   >|   
   >|Race is on for `NASCAR dads'   
   >|   
   >|DAVID POOLE   
   >|Staff Writer   
   >|   
   >|DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Like many people, race car driver Kyle Petty   
   >|doesn't have a precise definition of "NASCAR dad," one of the trendy   
   >|new terms in the American political lexicon.   
   >|   
   >|Petty has no problem, however, assessing President Bush's reasons for   
   >|coming to today's Daytona 500, the first race of the 2004 NASCAR   
   >|Nextel Cup season.   
   >|   
   >|"It's an election year," Petty said. "We've run the Daytona 500 every   
   >|year for 45 years. But the last time he came was an election year. If   
   >|I were a politician and knew there'd be that many people in one place,   
   >|goodness gracious I'd be there, too."   
   >|   
   >|Bush, a Republican whose brother Jeb is governor of Florida, came to   
   >|Daytona in July 2000, when he was governor of Texas and a candidate   
   >|for president. Now, as then, he will likely find a receptive audience.   
   >|   
   >|"Nothing explains George Bush's sweep of the South and his victory in   
   >|the 2000 election more than the super-majority he got among white male   
   >|Southerners," said Ferrel Guillory of the project on Southern   
   >|politics, media and public life at UNC Chapel Hill. "By going to a   
   >|NASCAR race, it seems he's not so much looking for new voters as he is   
   >|trying to energize the bedrock of his support."   
   >|   
   >|Exit polls, Guillory said, showed Bush beating Democratic nominee Al   
   >|Gore 70 percent to 27 percent among white men living in the South in   
   >|2000. In its strictest definition, the term "NASCAR dad," coined by   
   >|Democratic Party pollster Celinda Lake, refers to that potentially   
   >|pivotal bloc of voters.   
   >|   
   >|"He's defending his base," Guillory said of the president. "It's not   
   >|incidental that Daytona happens to be in Florida, which was the most   
   >|hotly contested state in the past election -- and after it. He has to   
   >|hold on to Florida in 2004. He won it in overtime last time."   
   >|   
   >|NASCAR gets something out of Bush's visit, too, of course. "I think   
   >|President Bush over the past two or three years has developed   
   >|relationships with some of our drivers," said Jim Hunter, NASCAR vice   
   >|president for corporate communications. "Tony Stewart went up there   
   >|two years ago and the president said, `Oh, you're the bad boy!' Then   
   >|last year, the first thing he said when he saw Tony was, `Have you   
   >|been good this year?' "   
   >|   
   >|NASCAR officials and a group of nine drivers, including 2003 Cup   
   >|series champion Matt Kenseth, visited the White House in early   
   >|December just before the annual awards ceremony in New York City.   
   >|During that visit, Hunter said, NASCAR President Mike Helton invited   
   >|Bush to a race.   
   >|   
   >|"When he called and said, `I'd like to come to the Daytona 500,' we   
   >|said, `Well, OK!' " Hunter said.   
   >|   
   >|Two other sitting presidents have visited Daytona. Both were   
   >|Republicans and both were here to witness significant events in the   
   >|career of Richard Petty, the sport's retired all-time winner and a   
   >|seven-time champion.   
   >|   
   >|In 1984, Ronald Reagan was here for a July 4 race that Petty won for   
   >|his 200th career Cup victory. In 1992, George H.W. Bush, the current   
   >|president's father, was here in July for the final race Petty drove at   
   >|this track.   
   >|   
   >|Richard Petty may be the quintessential "NASCAR dad." His father, Lee,   
   >|won three championships in the sport. His son, Kyle, continues to race   
   >|and his grandson, Adam, was on his way to becoming a fourth-generation   
   >|NASCAR driver when he was killed in a crash at New Hampshire   
   >|International Speedway in 2000.   
   >|   
   >|"The deal with racing fans is that they're pretty independent people,   
   >|and people who're independent usually are conservative," said Richard   
   >|Petty, who lost when he ran for N.C. secretary of state as a   
   >|Republican in 1996. "To me, if you put all of the people on a map --   
   >|the working people, the rich people, the poor people and all of that   
   >|-- we hit right dead in the middle. NASCAR hits the mainstream of the   
   >|American people. That's the reason the sponsors are here and the   
   >|reason the fans are here."   
   >|   
   >|The sport's newest high-profile sponsor is Nextel, the   
   >|telecommunications company for which today's race officially kicks off   
   >|a 10-year, $750 million deal that makes it the title sponsor of   
   >|NASCAR's top series.   
   >|   
   >|What was Winston Cup under a 33-year partnership with R.J. Reynolds   
   >|Tobacco is now Nextel Cup, and Nextel Chief Operating Officer Tom   
   >|Kelly has no qualms with Petty's definition.   
   >|   
   >|"What surprised us is what defines the middle these days," Kelly said.   
   >|"The middle is not people making $20,000 a year any more. The middle   
   >|is people who are fairly affluent."   
   >|   
      
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