“The Old Dominion is now the New Dominion, particularly in the suburban and exurban counties north of the Rappahannock River. Barack Obama could not have carried Virginia as it once was. But he is running even with John McCain in a paradoxical state that was home to the Confederacy’s capital but also gave the nation its first elected African American governor, Doug Wilder, in 1989.” E.J. Dionne takes a look at Obama’s prospects in Virginia. I must say, assuming I’m still here and/or around DC by November, it’ll be nice to vote in an honest-to-goodness swing state for once in my life.
Also, a programming note: I managed to secure a “new media” press pass for the DNC’s “Big Tent” in Denver. (Whether it was due to GitM’s longevity, some Dem name-dropping by yours truly, or they just let everyone who signed up through the gates, I know not.) In any case, I bought a (pricey) flight yesterday and will be on the ground and reporting in from the Mile High City during the Democratic National Convention next month. Should be grand. (And if you’ll be there too, drop me a line.)
Virginia is quite a strange state when it comes to race relations. In addition to the more famous case of Doug Wilder, Richmond (the “other” Capital City) had one of the first (Virginian) post-reconstruction black city council members way back in 1949 and his name was Oliver Hill. Hill later took up a court case in Prince Edward County which became one of the five “Brown” cases. But even before his most famous work, Hill was well known as an NAACP lawyer, helping achieve many important civil rights cases and working with Thurgood Marshall, among others.
Despite some of these individual victories, few would consider the state a paragon of race relations and Richmond itself, especially schizophrenic in its racial past.
congrats on the press pass – should be fun. And there are worse things than going to Denver for any reason…