I just saw Bill Clinton in person

[NewMrs.]

He is campaigning for his wife in Western PA today. One of his stops is actually about 15 minutes from my house. My husband and I just found out last night that he was scheduled to speak. The "Hillary for President" campaign left an automated message on our voicemail.

He spoke on somebody's front porch in a tiny "city" outside of Pittsburgh. The owners of the house are elderly and they sat out on the porch with their walkers while Clinton stood beside them and spoke. We stood in somebody's yard across the street from the porch were he was standing. The event was actually within walking distance of where I had my wedding recepting two years ago, and we have a friend who lives two blocks away from this house, so it felt weird to be standing in somebody's yard watching a president speak. We were towards the back of the crowed but we could still see and hear him really well.

My sister is a senior in college (a western PA college) and she got to watch Bill Clinton speak at her college last week. She was going to vote for Obama until she heard Clinton speak. She told me that now she doesn't know who to vote for. I told her that that was exactly the reason why Bill Clinton came to her school.

[wordsmith]

What made her unsure now who to vote for?

[NewMrs.]

My sister was excited about Obama last year. She even read at least one of his books. She went to Washington, DC a few months ago for a school trip and got her picture taken beside the door to his Senate office, so that his name plaque showed up behind her in the picture. I guess that she was just impressed with the Clinton campaign after she heard Bill speak.

I am still undecided myself, and I have to go vote tomorrow morning as soon as the polls open so that I can make it to work on time.

Edit: Also, I am not completely sure about this, but maybe Obama's comment about people in small towns in PA being "bitter" made her unsure of who to vote for. My family is from a very small town in PA. I know that the comment is making me think. I know that the comment has been taken out of context. I read the original comment. I also saw some truth to it, in my personal experience of small-town life. I just feel that its hard to defend him for saying this.

[spokes]

do you mean the dude who sings atomic dog? - oh no wait that is george clinton. never mind!!!

so what is the word on slick willy - was he macking on the fine ladies of philly?

that is touching that those fine folks were able to sit out on thier porch, while he did his dog and pony show - those type of "staged" events make me want to hurl.

is that one small comment really swaying you? what about slik willies actions while in the white house?

as an aisde since i am canadian i have no say in wether it is the obama hamma, ice queen hilary or off-key william hung.

[and1grad]

I think a good number of people are undecided when it comes to these 2 b/c the difference b/w them is so small. I think its going to come to just a gut decision for most people. There isnt going to be anything definitive that comes up that will make one candidate better than the other.

[Jabberwocky]

I think the difference is pretty big between Hillary and Obama. Hillary seems to pander to voters. Her story about her grandpa taking her outback to learn how to shoot seems like a total bunch of crock to try to win over gun owners. Then there is the whole under fire thing. With Obama, he say the right thing the most of the time, sometimes he is controversial, but I feel that overall he's more truthful.

[CoolAZN]

...doing their best BSin' to win votes.

~ I like what the bartender said during happy hr: "do we really need just two different family members consistently running our government (referring to having only the bush and clinton in the office since the early '90s)...~

Unfortunately, I cannot vote today since I did not register in time...o well, hope the best believer wins...:p

[and1grad]

They ALL pander. Its ridiculous to infer that Obama doesnt.

[redav]

They ALL pander. Its ridiculous to infer that Obama doesnt.
I think it's the evil you know or the evil you don't know. We all know how evil Hillary is, but we have yet to see how evil Obama is.

[PenforPrez]

Her story about her grandpa taking her outback to learn how to shoot seems like a total bunch of crock to try to win over gun owners.

It is. She ought to tell that to these rednecks who have screamed loudly for many years that she'll take everybody's guns away. Missouri is full of that lot. :googly: It's BS, but the truth is meaningless.

Of course, they probably won't vote for Obama either, so the Democrats aren't out anything.

Paul

[PenforPrez]

CNN predicts Hillary will win the Pennsylvania primary. How they can call that with less than 10% of the vote counted is beyond me. :rolleyes:

My myriad relatives in northwest Pennsylvania all voted for Hillary. Of course, nearly all of them are over 65 (Hillary is very popular with that group), and some considerably so.

Paul

[cameralady]

This is interesting. I wonder what is up with these two random counties (Union and Centre) in the middle of Pennsylvania that went to Obama. (http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/state/#PA)

[Bocheezu]

Centre county is where Penn State University (State College) is. Whether that's the difference or not, I haven't the foggiest, but that is a difference between that county from the ones around it.

[PenforPrez]

Centre county is where Penn State University (State College) is. Whether that's the difference or not, I haven't the foggiest, but that is a difference between that county from the ones around it.

That usually is the case, and I think that's so here.

Obama seems to pull out one or two rural counties in states where Hillary has been very strong. Obama won one rural county here in Missouri (Nodaway, in northwest MO), and I was surprised he won that. There were counties in the Ozarks where Obama polled less then 20%. Really, Nodaway County doesn't count either, because there's a major state university there (Northwestern Missouri State in Maryville).

I ask my original question again: How is Obama going to win racist white rural votes in Missouri? (and Ohio? and Pennsylvania? and Virginia?) They're already convinced Hillary's out to take their guns away, so she will NOT win that vote, as sure as hell. But any Democrat needs to pick up more of that vote to have any hope of winning Missouri. Or Ohio. Or Virginia.

The Democrats will not win in '08 without picking up one or two of those, especially if we lose a close blue state (I'm still worried about holding onto Wisconsin). In Missouri, John Kerry won ONE county outside of St. Louis and Kansas City (out of 112 possible). We're not going to win elections that way.

This is why I wanted Mark Warner to run for President. He won the Virginia governor's seat AND shut up the NRA at a time (late 2001) when good Democrats had to hide in the closet. THAT'S who we need right now! He'll make a good Senator from the beautiful state of Virginia for right now, anyway.

Back to Pennsylvania. I'm more surprised about Hillary winning Allegheny County, which is the Pittsburgh area. I thought Obama would do better there, but Hillary did very well in similar cities in Ohio (Akron and Youngstown).

Paul

[NewMrs.]

Back to Pennsylvania. I'm more surprised about Hillary winning Allegheny County, which is the Pittsburgh area. I thought Obama would do better there, but Hillary did very well in similar cities in Ohio (Akron and Youngstown).

Paul

A large percentage of the residents of Allegheny County are elderly. Also, Allegheny County is predominently Democrat, but the Democratic Party in Allegheny County is very old-school and provincial.

That being said, Pittsburgh's mayor is about 27 years old, and he's the country's youngest mayor of a large city. However, he comes from a family that is very well-connected politically.

[PenforPrez]

That being said, Pittsburgh's mayor is about 27 years old, and he's the country's youngest mayor of a large city. However, he comes from a family that is very well-connected politically.

I was reading something about him; I forget what it was now. I worry about well-connected politicians; that's how Missouri got saddled with Matt Blunt (who was elected MO governor at 32). :cry:

Paul