1) Loose aggregation of all of the appalachias together that fails to make state-by-state distinctions, which are important when considering voting patterns.

2) Unlabelled and therefore unclear map that implies Appalachian voters voted republican in the 2008 election after having voted democratic in the 2004 election.  This is patently false; more appalachian states voted democrat in the 2008 election than the 2004, where almost all of them voted for Bush again.

3) Implication that they voted for Kerry over Obama because of race, backed by inference and a quote from a stupid senator making a reference to John Kerry’s culture.  Ripe for eyebrow quirking.

4) Exit polls from the Democratic primary, taken by CNN, referred to by a broken, secondary source, that only take two states into consideration.  The 20% is also completely out of context – 20% versus what national average?  In Democratic states?  Republican states?

5) HIGHLY misleading chart. The chart is colour coded brown and peach (i.e. black and white) and is difficult to understand at a glance.  Just looking at it the message is:  Everyone likes white people more.  What the graph is actually measuring is Clinton’s popularity versus Obama.  We see Clinton is far more popular with people who said race was important, yes, but this enough enough to draw sweeping conclusions and particularly not enough to apply those conclusions to the other 80% represented on the graph (not that the percentages are noted on the graph).

6) In the discussion of said chart, pro-Clinton voters are being referred to as “anti-Obama.”  Deliberate misinterpretation of the data.

That is all besides a failure to consider other factors, such as the prominence of the coal industry in Appalachian states.  Seriously disappointed in sociological images on this one – this is awful research.

Saying that being a stay-at-home mom is a job sounds just as corny as someone who says that their full-time job is “looking for employment”, being a student, or taking care of the home.