Barack Obama or John McCain? For some reason Parker Griffith doesn't know which candidate he is going to vote for...

Northern Alabama is a relatively conservative place. Because of that the Congressional district that covers it appears to have a very competitive race building between Wayne Parker and State Senator Parker Griffith. The question that voters will be asked is "are you comfortable sending another 'Blue Dog Democrat' to Washington?"

The current incumbent, and one of the founders of the "Blue Dogs," Bud Cramer is getting out even though he could have easily been re-elected, hell he had a ton of money in a war chest that he is still spending. Replacing Cramer is going to be hard regardless of who wins because he was powerful and he brought home the bacon when both Republicans and Democrats controlled the Washington D.C.

Parker Griffith knows that in order to get to D.C. he is going to have to play it relatively conservative. He has gone so far as to tell me on my radio program that he has no clue which Presidential candidate is going to get his vote come November, which is quite amusing coming for a Democratic candidate for a federal office.

Griffith is actually playing this pretty smart, he is unwilling to alienate the conservative Alabama Democrats by voicing support for Barack Obama, while at the same time he is unwilling to anger an his liberal contingent by supporting John McCain. The funny thing is, and Bud Cramer learned this after almost losing to Wayne Parker in '94, you can anger the liberals in AL-05 but you can not win the district without the conservatives. Griffith knows the Barack Obama supporters will vote for him in AL-05 because they are not going to vote for Wayne Parker, so he must court the George Bush-Bud Cramer voters and convert them into John McCain-Parker Griffith voters.

Can he do that by actively supporting Barack Obama?