Hoover backs Dewey!

The Democrats could lose West Virginia again, argues Slate's William Salem. "West Virginians respect authority.... Democrats stick with the party of their fathers unless the GOP nominates an incumbent President." Saletan acknowledges one exception to this role in explaining George W. Bush's victory over Al Gore--"they trusted the King's son." However, he fails to mention another, Herbert Hoover. That Republican incumbent lost West Virginia to FDR in 1932.

What possible relevance does that have today, you ask? Hoover was so heartily disliked by West Virginians that for the next couple of decades, the Democratic Charleston Gazette would dispose of the current Republican presidential nominee by seizing on the occasion of an obscure Hoover speech in Dubuque and run a banner headline: "Hoover Backs Dewey!" accompanied by a picture of Hoover looking his smuggest that the paper kept carefully preserved in its files for just such occasions. The point of the picture was to depict the GOP as the party of the rich, whose indifference to the common man was only exceeded by their satisfaction with themselves. Herbert Hoover may be long gone, but West Virginians are still the same people. And that is why Bush's indifference to their needs should be emphasized by his opponent's campaign. Fortunately for John Kerry's people, finding a photograph of Bush looking smug is a blessedly undaunting challenge.