Eastern Kentucky: A PUMA-free zone

After it became apparent that Barack Obama would become the Democratic nominee for president, some ardent Hillary Clinton supporters formed a group called PUMA, short for Party Unity My Ass. In the general election, it was thought, PUMAs and unaffiliated Dems, the "bitter" white, working class voters, would for for John McCain.

It didn't happen that way.

The Lexington Herald-Leader zooms in on one Eastern Kentucky county. Yes, McCain easily won the state, but what they uncovered is startling.

Menifee County is one of eight counties out of 120 — along with Wolfe, Elliott and Rowan counties in Eastern Kentucky — that bucked Kentucky's overwhelming vote for John McCain in the '08 presidential election. Other Kentucky counties that went for Obama: Fayette, Jefferson, Henderson and Hancock.

Menifee County voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton in June's Democratic primary: She scored 88.5 percent versus only 8.3 percent for Barack Obama. (Emphasis mine.) But then the county — which voted for Bill Clinton in 1996, George W. Bush in 2000 and narrowly for John Kerry in 2004 — went for Obama in the general election.

In the 2008 presidential election: Barack Obama, 1,276; McCain, 1,155

In the 2008 Democratic primary: Hillary Clinton, 1,527; Barack Obama, 143

In the 2004 presidential election: John Kerry, 1,284; George Bush, 1,215

In the 2000 presidential election: George Bush, 1,170; Al Gore, 1,038

It wasn't supposed to be that way for the GOP in November.

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