Well folks . . . Pennsylvania let the country down. It’s really not all that surprising. Once you get outside of the Philadelphia, Scranton and Harrisburg areas you might as well be in Kentucky. Pittsburgh is semi-cosmopolitan, but it’s still heavily blue-collared, white, and on the older side. A friend of mine, and one-time roommate, who grew up about a half hour from Pittsburgh – in the heart of Appalachia – turned me on to the nickname Pennsyltucky. No offense to the good people of Kentucky, but it’s a very apropos nickname. After graduating college, my friend could not wait to hotfoot it out of good ol’ PA! He’s a country boy at heart, but far too liberal for rural PA.
I have plenty of friends who currently/still reside in Pennsylvania. Most of them are in the Philadelphia and Harrisburg areas, but a few still call the Pittsburgh area home.
I’d say the demographics of Pennsylavia tell the tale of yesterday’s primary. Those with just high school (or less) education went for Hillary 64% to Barack’s 34%. Barack won the college graduate and advanced degree voters by 55% to Hillary’s 45%. A majority of White working class, women, Catholic, and older voters went for Hillary. The newer (young) voters, professionals, and Protestant voters sided more with Barack.
Hillary started out a month or so ago with a +20% lead. Barack had cut that lead – in the polls, at least – down to near 6%. Hillary (allegedly?) ended up winning by roughly 9.4%. She likes to call it a *double digit victory* because she’s very liberal when it comes to rounding numbers . . . in her favor.
The main reason Barack was not able to pull off the upset was due to Hillary’s negative ads. Like it or not, there’s a very good reason some candidates are willing to go negative. IT WORKS! The people who don’t go any deeper than the 30 second spots are much more likely to buy into the fear and negativity. They don’t stop to think about: what was taken out of context, or that they’re (the candidates) playing on old (handed down) prejudices, and that they’re being shamelessly manipulated.
Despite all the Hillary-hoopla (calling it a *decisive victory*) and the media-hoopla (You’d have thought that Tim Russert just became a new father, he was so giddy!) she only picked up a handful of delegates. Obama still has a commanding delegate lead. And, if you are a rational person and don’t count Florida and Michigan – where he was on the ballot, but did not campaign, because he knew those primaries wouldn’t be counted – he still leads in the popular vote. We can let her revel in the illusion that she is actually leading in the popular vote. It’s not like she has much else going for her!
But onward and upward! A day or two of that *mean and biased* media fawning over their real, true darling (Hillary Clinton) and then they’ll be forced into covering the real, true people’s choice . . . Barack Obama.
Your Uncle Rave
Unclerave's Wordy Weblog 
Pennsyltucky Stands True to Form
Published April 24, 2008 Commentary , Current Events , Politics Leave a CommentTags: Politics
Well folks . . . Pennsylvania let the country down. It’s really not all that surprising. Once you get outside of the Philadelphia, Scranton and Harrisburg areas you might as well be in Kentucky. Pittsburgh is semi-cosmopolitan, but it’s still heavily blue-collared, white, and on the older side. A friend of mine, and one-time roommate, who grew up about a half hour from Pittsburgh – in the heart of Appalachia – turned me on to the nickname Pennsyltucky. No offense to the good people of Kentucky, but it’s a very apropos nickname. After graduating college, my friend could not wait to hotfoot it out of good ol’ PA! He’s a country boy at heart, but far too liberal for rural PA.
I have plenty of friends who currently/still reside in Pennsylvania. Most of them are in the Philadelphia and Harrisburg areas, but a few still call the Pittsburgh area home.
I’d say the demographics of Pennsylavia tell the tale of yesterday’s primary. Those with just high school (or less) education went for Hillary 64% to Barack’s 34%. Barack won the college graduate and advanced degree voters by 55% to Hillary’s 45%. A majority of White working class, women, Catholic, and older voters went for Hillary. The newer (young) voters, professionals, and Protestant voters sided more with Barack.
Hillary started out a month or so ago with a +20% lead. Barack had cut that lead – in the polls, at least – down to near 6%. Hillary (allegedly?) ended up winning by roughly 9.4%. She likes to call it a *double digit victory* because she’s very liberal when it comes to rounding numbers . . . in her favor.
The main reason Barack was not able to pull off the upset was due to Hillary’s negative ads. Like it or not, there’s a very good reason some candidates are willing to go negative. IT WORKS! The people who don’t go any deeper than the 30 second spots are much more likely to buy into the fear and negativity. They don’t stop to think about: what was taken out of context, or that they’re (the candidates) playing on old (handed down) prejudices, and that they’re being shamelessly manipulated.
Despite all the Hillary-hoopla (calling it a *decisive victory*) and the media-hoopla (You’d have thought that Tim Russert just became a new father, he was so giddy!) she only picked up a handful of delegates. Obama still has a commanding delegate lead. And, if you are a rational person and don’t count Florida and Michigan – where he was on the ballot, but did not campaign, because he knew those primaries wouldn’t be counted – he still leads in the popular vote. We can let her revel in the illusion that she is actually leading in the popular vote. It’s not like she has much else going for her!
But onward and upward! A day or two of that *mean and biased* media fawning over their real, true darling (Hillary Clinton) and then they’ll be forced into covering the real, true people’s choice . . . Barack Obama.
Your Uncle Rave