Obama opens campaign office in North Little Rock?

You've really got to admire the Barack Obama campaign.

Well, I mean you've got to admire the campaign when it's not attacking anyone who doesn't believe that Obama is the Second Coming, I mean.

The most recent move worthy of respect happened today when the group opened a campaign office in North Little Rock. Obama doesn't have a chance in hell of carrying Arkansas as there's just not enough white liberal guilt in this state to swing the votes needed to defeat John McCain. Yes, they could use the Al Gore technique of using cigarettes to buy votes from the homeless and they'll still not drum up enough support in this state to topple McCain.

Still, it's great to see that his supporters are trying to make a go of it.

They're naive enough to think Obama might have a chance in Arkansas, and that's kind of cute in the same way a six-year-old trying to build a robot out of a cardboard box and some assorted bolts, screws and electrical tape is cute. You know the kid will never build a robot, but he's enjoying himself so much that you just want to let him give it a shot, anyway.

Obama needs to carry the South to win this election. That's all there is to it. He's in a close battle with McCain and will need to carry all of the states he can. I'm well aware that Obama's supporters will declare that we're just too racist around here to vote for a black man. You'll find that to be true in some quarters, but I'd wager the "let's keep the White House white" bunch is very much in the minority.

Hollering "racism!" overlooks the real difficulty that a lot of people in these parts have with Obama. The problem, of course, is that national Democrats hate almost everyone who lives in the South or any rural enclave, really. Winning the South would mean that Obama and his ilk would have to admit that what is important to people in places like Arkansas actually matters. They'll never do that, of course.

The Democrats are terrible at talking to those of us in "flyover territory," anyway. Remember how idiotic John Kerry looked when he made an awkward attempt to get a gun, buy a hunting license and go hunting? Obama's slicker than Kerry was in addressing us so-called "red staters," but not by much.

Watch for McCain to carry Arkansas, the South and a good chunk of the rest of the nation. You can thank America's favorite populist, Sarah Palin, for McCain's success in November.