Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Conrad Burns's Prospects   [John Derbyshire]

A nostalgic Montanan writes:

"Glad you enjoyed your trip. ...  My family is from Western Montana. In 80% of the country my father would be seen as a reddest of red Republicans, but he is a registered Dem.  He voted for Bush twice, but is looking forward to voting AGAINST Burns. ... Speaking of Burns, he will lose, but not due to some overwhelming desire to replace him with a Democrat, but because he's the kind of guy that really gets under your skin after a while. As much as Republicans will try and paint Tester as a Daily Kos liberal loon, it won't fly.

"I'm not sure how much time you spent in [Missoula] itself but even a few hours and you'd see that 'crunchy' is a good way to descrie the place.  However, even among the Saab driving, Kashi eating, merlot drinking crowd, the county went 50/50 red/blue in both 2000 and 2004. It's like San Francisco living with Ohio style voting.

"I left Montana for college 12 years ago and ended up on the east coast and then in California. I go back to visit every 3-4 months. As I sit by the river, notice the lack of graffiti, the abundant use of English (hell even hotel maids are American) I want to stay. But then I realize that since I am neither a professor, a doctor or a BLM manager, my job prospects are very limited. At least prospects to make the kind of money I make now. But some day, when I've stashed enough away, I will return."

08/23 12:55 PMShare