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Posted: 11:28 p.m. Tuesday, May 22, 2012
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By Jamie Dupree
For the second time this month, a Democratic Primary vote has featured a distinct protest vote against President Obama, as Democrats in Kentucky and Arkansas signaled their displeasure with the current White House.
Kentucky Democrats cast 42% for "Undecided" instead of the incumbent President of their own party, while in Arkansas, 41% of primary voters opted for an unknown Tennessee attorney named John Wolfe.
It wasn't hard to see the big thumbs down that more rural voters in those states gave to the President, as over half of the 120 counties in Kentucky were carried by "Undecided" - 66 of 120.
The story line was much the same in Arkansas, as over two dozen counties went to Wolfe over the sitting President.
Most of the President's advantage was in urban areas of both Kentucky and Arkansas - like Jefferson County (Louisville) and Fayette County (Lexington) where he won 82% and 76% of the vote - but in rural areas, there was a steady stream of voters who chose another option instead.
Two weeks ago, a federal prison inmate from Texas won 41% of the vote in the Democratic Primary in West Virginia against President Obama.
But the difference there was that the President only lost 10 of West Virginia's 55 counties.
Some listeners lectured me on Twitter last night for even reporting the results, aiming barbs at me as well as at the intelligence level of people living in Kentucky, Arkansas and West Virginia.
So let's take a step back - does this really mean anything?
Or were these states not going to be in the Democratic column in November anyway?
President Obama will be doing some campaigning in coming days, as he heads out to Colorado on Wednesday to give the commencement address at the Air Force Academy, and then holds a fundraiser in Denver.
He will also raise money in California and Iowa in coming days.
As for Mitt Romney, he is now on the verge of clinching the GOP nomination - officially - next week in Texas, when 155 delegates are at stake.
Jamie Dupree is the Radio News Director of the Washington Bureau of the Cox Media Group and writes the Washington Insider blog.
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