A footnote to the very significant PA election... [View all]

[PCIntern]

Over four years ago I wrote a post detailing how I had been invited to a small gathering to discuss issues with someone who was thinking of running for Governor. Tom Wolf is a close friend of a patient of mine and there were about eight of us at my patient's gracious home in the Fairmount section of Philadelphia. Mr. Wolf came around to each of us, we had a nice chat as to who we were, etc., and then he gave what could best be described as a stump speech. Afterwards he asked each of us individually what we thought. My reply was as follows: I think PA could do with a thoughtful, progressive, business-oriented governor in these times and there is a kindness/fatherliness which you possess which is a great asset. There are two things which caused me to raise my eyebrows: first is that you told a sort of funny joke that Governor Rendell had chosen you for his cabinet because you were the only Democrat in York County who owned a tie. Although amusing, it denigrates rural Democrats. Secondly, you kept referring to your Peace Corps years: many in our backwards state think that if you were in the Peace Corps, you were a draft dodger during Vietnam - that's a fact of life here even though one thing had nothing to do with the other. It is OK for Republicans to avoid the draft, quite another thing for Democrats to do so.
So when he announced, I noticed that those two facets of his speech were missing. The day after the successful election, I received a huge plant from a Florist with the Governor-elect's and his wife's name with the nicest note.

But I thought that he would never be re-elected: that Harrisburg Rethugs would chew him up and spit him out. I was wrong: he won somewhat overwhelmingly over a candidate who might be best described as a Donald Trump without the "class" and "brains" if that's even possible. I'm extremely pleased about this. He is a decent man and a moral man without the sanctimony.

Senator Casey of course won: him I know as well: his campaign for his first term was run out of the building in which I practice and have had many elevator/lobby conversations with him. Although a member of the Lucky Sperm Club, his last name is magical here in PA.

Just a word or two after a successful election day here...