So one thing that has been ignored thus far on the thread is not only that Moore made his first public appearance since the scandals have broken, but where he made it and why....
(This is just a link to the first campaign event, and all of the comments below are my own)
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/27/roy-moore-rally-alabama-215871Instead of focusing on the optics of this small town in Alabama, and how that is presented on local (Free) statewide news coverage, there was obviously something deeper going on....
1.) The Alabama US-Senate election will ultimately in my mind be decided upon swings within the large Metro areas of the State, that account for a significant majority of the State total vote...
These include many heavily, and in some cases overwhelmingly Republican White Suburbs and Exurbs.
2.) I get that Moore is trying to double-down on the Rural and Small Town 'Pub base voters that catapulted his career some decades back, and even more recently in the 'Pub Senate run-off, but this seems to be a curious place to do it....
3.) I get the idea of going to some small town of 2.5k in some limited admission Community Center, where you have a standing room only gig (200-250 people) with hardcore supporters driving in from neighboring counties and elsewhere in Alabama, to create the optics of an enthusiastic crowd....
4.) Why DeKalb County, and not Etowah County just a few Miles down the Road, which is an overwhelmingly Republican County, where he first started his career at Gadsen (And not just as the creepy DA stalking Teenage Girls at the Mall)....
5.) Dekalb is a County with a population of ~70k, that in many ways is closer to a Piedmont County in Georgia, where one of my Son-In-Laws grew up....
It is an overwhelmingly White Manufacturing County, with an extremely large Latino Population....
Until very recently, it used to be a major Textile producing County, known as the "Sock Capitol of the World"
http://blog.al.com/huntsville-times-business/2011/04/the_decline_of_the_hosiery_ind.htmlThe major employer is currently Cagle's with a large Poultry Manufacturing Plant in Collinsville....
6.) I wonder to what extent Moore is trying to use DeKalb to try to wrap himself around the cloth of Trump, thinking that pandering to resentment against Latino poultry factory workers and the local Old Timers lamenting the loss of the Textile jobs, but don't want to work in the Poultry Factory and whose sons and daughters are drifting down the road to jobs elsewhere, will somehow win him Alabama....
7.) It almost makes we wonder to what extent his campaign has given up on the heavily Republican Suburban and Exurban areas of the largest Cities of Alabama....
Why hasn't Moore scheduled any events at any of the myriad of Auto plants around Alabama???
I guess maybe he thinks it might be more fashionable in Alabama to play to Anti-Latino resentment, since most White 'Bamans these days are cut from very different cloth than that of their parents and grandparents......
8.) Just a few musings....
EDIT: One other thing I neglected to mention was that Politico appears to have incorrectly state Moore's % of the Republican Senate Primary Vote in Dekalb County....
I believe they cited it as 59%, but it was actually only 49% since they only ran the numbers a two person race....
Mo Brooks, The Congressman from the 5th District got 10% of the Vote here...
Sounds to me like Moore is just still trying to consolidate the base....
