Somebody has finally said it, on Salon.

Title: Why don't those hillbillies like Obama?

Subtitle: Obama's "Appalachian problem" is a symptom of his party's larger "rural problem." But a new poll offers hope for the fall -- provided the Democrats show rural voters some respect.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/05/20/appalachia/index.html

Notable quotes:

"Many of those rural voters were Appalachian and blue collar, people who back before the name-calling were reliable Democrats."

"But lately, other than Edwards, we [rural Appalachian voters] haven't had many visitors. Maybe the party that once welcomed Appalachian coal miners and hillside farmers has moved on. The national Democratic Party has become younger, richer, hipper and far less interested in preserving an identity forged in the Great Depression. Who really wants a political party full of poor mountaineers?"

"How Obama fares in rural America may, in the end, have to do with whether he shows up."

What have I been saying for a long time on this blog? Maddow -- I understand what you said about voting patterns since after 1964. I get it. But you don't accept that that's the last chapter on hillbilly voting patterns, do you? Any party that gives up on these areas -- refuses to show up and ask for votes -- well, that's called "loss by default" (aka "surrender"). And the Roosevelt realignment proves that race is not the determinative issue here -- it's the economy.

The party that wants these votes will ask for them. The party that tries to unify people around the economy will do best. The party that drops the name-calling and mockery has a chance. The party that can get its head around the agrarian roots of rural populism has the best chance. This issue sweeps across race.

See, Preventing Black Farm Loss and Moving Toward a Sustainable Food System in North Carolina: Informing Policy (Alice Ammerman, Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and Department of Nutrition, Schools of Public Health and Medicine)

This is not about any particular candidate -- it's about how the parties have behaved since '64. But I've said that about 100 times now.