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I know Obama’s not likely to win West Virginia this year, and I know his campaign’s choice to spend most of their resources in more closely contested states (and states with more electoral votes!) is rational, but it still bugs me when my friends refer to my home state as hopelessly conservative. “Oh, West Virginia? They’re never going to vote for Obama!” Oh really?

West Virginia is a traditionally Democratic state! It’s voted Democratic six times in the last ten presidental elections, while Indiana — which has been considered a “swing state” this election for a while — voted Republican in all ten. Not to mention WV’s long tradition of organized labor, its Democratic governor recently elected with almost twice the votes of his Republican opponent, and its two-out-of-three Democratic representatives.

Plus, who could forget WV’s two long-serving Democratic senators (who do so much for the state!)*? Byrd has never lost an election, Rockefeller is expected to be re-elected by a wide margin this year).

Fortunately, as polls swing ever further toward Obama, I’m getting somewhat vindicated on this issue; Real Clear Politics just pulled WV into the toss-up column, and poll analyst and fellow U of C alum Nate Silver has a post up this week about the state’s chances in the general election.

* as an almost-native of West “by Robert C. Byrd” Virginia, I have to say that I am down with pork. I don’t claim to be a fiscal conservative! I’ve seen how some of Byrd’s projects have brought much-needed jobs and infrastructure to a state that generally has too little of both.

Recently, Jesse and I took a road trip through the South (or rather, Appalachia and parts of the upper south); we visited my parents (and their dog and chickens) in West Virginia, drove through Virginia, visited Knoxville and Nashville in Tennessee, crossed Kentucky, drove back up to my parents’ house through Western West Virginia’s mountainous highways, and visited more family in the suburbs of Philadelphia.

I’ve been procrastinating on blogging about this because I’m not sure what to say. I could list the places we visited and things we did there, or I could try to describe the people we met, but none of that would really convey how I feel about it. It will have to suffice, then, to say that this was a strong contender for my favorite of all the vacations/trips I’ve ever taken.