Will Citizen of the World Obama Play Well In Pennsylvania?
In her latest column, Pittsburgh Tribune Review columnist Salena Zito suggests that Pennsylvania could present a challenge for ‘citizen of the world’ Obama. I find Ms. Zito’s scenarios entirely plausible.
The key for McCain is to win over Clinton Democrats from the primary as well as to maximize turnout among Republicans and pro-McCain coalitions.
He needs geographical voting blocs to go his way, too. He must win the traditionally conservative “T” across the top of the state and down the center but he also must “corner” Obama, meaning a four-corner strategy of wins in Erie (the northwest), Allegheny, Washington and Westmoreland counties (the southwest), Scranton, Lackawanna, Luzerne and Wilkes-Barre (the northeast) and Bucks County (the southeast).
Let’s remember how badly Obama performed with blue collar workers. Despite all his “Citizen of the World” talk, Sen. Obama still doesn’t connect with blue collar workers. Remember state after state where Hillary pummeled Obama with blue collar workers. That wasn’t just a trend. That wasn’t an accident.
It was state after state telling Sen. Obama that they didn’t like his statement about them clinging to their guns and their religion because of their poverty.
There’s an important rule to remember in all this: Just because the In Love Media isn’t talking about this doesn’t mean that blue collar Americans have forgotten his statements. They still see Sen. Obama as an elitist. After his badmouthing of America and his apologizing for America in his Berlin speech, rest assured that people are being reminded that Sen. Obama doesn’t share their views of America.
From everything that I’ve read, the T is very conservative. I also remember that Pittsburgh and the surrounding countryside are home to alot of active duty, reserve and retired military. I think Diana Irey once told Hannity & Colmes that that bloc represented 20+ percent of the voters in PA-12. Surely those voters will be open to Sen. McCain’s message.
Then there’s this:
Ceisler cautions that Democrats should not forget “the Ridge factor”, former two-term Republican governor Tom Ridge, considered a hometown boy from Erie down to Allegheny County, “even if he is not on the ticket.”
Hillary used Rendell extensively in her campaign. Don’t bet that McCain didn’t pick up on that. While I can’t picture McCain picking Ridge as his running mate, I can see him campaigning with him throughout Pennsylvania to drive up Republican turnout and to cut into Obama’s margins in other areas.
What will be the final outcome in Pennsylvania? I don’t know. What I’m certain of is that I’ll be paying attention to what Ms. Zito writes about in her columns and on her blog, which is titled the Forty Fourth Estate. I highly recommend bookmarking Ms. Zito’s blog if you’re a political junkie like me.
Technorati Tags: Obama, Pennsylvania, Blue Collar Workers, The T, Rendell, Ridge, Hillary, John McCain, Election 2008
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog