Why isn't the story that the convicted felon got almost as many votes as Romney?

Very good point.

Also a few more.

1. It was open to Democrats and Independents, so as usual many Repubs voted as "independent".

2. This is "Appalachia". What really amazes me is that Obama got any votes at all in this neck of the woods. This is where during a Mccain campaign stop, some of the people were caught on camera saying they wouldn't accept no "Negra" in "our White House". They then said they "knew some people who were gonna.." (Pistol gesture with thumb and index finger) if Obama was elected. Youtube West Virginia.

Because he wasn't running against Romney.

You can make the point that there is more passion on the Democratic side, both among people who support Obama and among people who oppose him (many of whom are Democrats in West Virginia where Democrats still tend to be pretty conservative). But that's about the only significance to your point and there are other cases that demonstrate it better. Obama certainly isn't going to bring up that fact because it keeps the embarassing story from West Virginia in the news. As it stands now, it is a 2-3 day story, tops, just because it takes a little analysis to understand what actually happened there. It's not quite like when Alvin Greene actually won the Democratic primary, surprising everyone, including him, but the causes are pretty similar: a primary in which nobody was really paying attention except a handful of angry voters who came out to make a point by voting for a candidate they didn't know anything about.

Common sense would point to the fact that the WV Democrats voted in the primary for their federal, state, and local Democratic representatives but have no intention of voting for Obama. WV mines a lot of coal and Obama wants to kill the coal industry. He isn't going to carry that state.

I don't think that anyone cares one way or the other. I doubt that Obama is counting on it given that the state hasn't voted for a democrat since 1996. And as for Mittens, he is better off focusing his energies on the surrounding states, states with more electoral votes than WV has.

The story was that he got almost as many votes as Obama, not Romney.

That's a far more pathetic story than the one you suggest.

Sorry Bob as with all your questions you have no one thing correct...

I think you lost your last marble.