Let West Virginia Secede from the Union Unless

America is willing to invest more in the public school system there. I read this article today and I couldn't believe what I was reading.

Like most people in Mingo County, West Virginia, Leonard Simpson is a lifelong Democrat. But given a choice between Barack Obama and John McCain in November, the 67-year-old retired coalminer would vote Republican.

“I heard that Obama is a Muslim and his wife’s an atheist,” said Mr Simpson, drawing on a cigarette outside the fire station in Williamson, a coalmining town of 3,400 people surrounded by lush wooded hillsides.

Mr Simpson’s remarks help explain why Mr Obama is trailing Hillary Clinton, his Democratic rival, by 40 percentage points ahead of Tuesday’s primary election in the heavily white and rural state, according to recent opinion polls.

Also from the same article:

Occupying a swathe of the Appalachian Mountains on the threshold between the Bible Belt and the Rust Belt, West Virginia is a swing state that voted twice for George W. Bush but backed Democrats in six of the eight prior presidential elections.

No Democrat has been elected to the White House without carrying West Virginia since 1916, yet Mr Obama appears to have little chance of winning there in November. Recent opinion polls indicate that Mrs Clinton would narrowly beat Mr McCain in the state but Mr Obama would lose by nearly 20 percentage points.

If this article is true, I think it's ludicrous that Hillary keeps referring to these misinformed people as her "base." At this point, shouldn't she try to work at correcting any misinformation still lingering about Obama being a Muslim so that this swing state will swing democratic in the general election.

Even if she thought she was still competitive, wouldn't a legitimate competitor want to win on his or her merits and not on ridiculous lies propagated by the crazy conservative disinformation machine.

I don't get it. How can anybody be that ambitious?

I'm confused.