Rural Pennsylvania Tests Obama; "Some of you won’t vote for him because he’s black....Get over it."

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Rural Swath of Big State Tests Obama
By MICHAEL POWELL
Published: August 20, 2008

Stateside: Pennsylvania
This is part of an occasional series of articles that track the pace of the presidential race in states across the country.

....“Barack Obama makes me nervous,” said...a 65-year-old retiree with a garden hose in hand. “Who is he? Where’d he come from? ” As for Senator McCain? He shook his head. “He keeps talking about being a prisoner of war back in Vietnam. Great. The economy stinks; tell me his plan.”

To roam the rural reaches of western Pennsylvania, through largely white working-class counties, is to understand the breadth of the challenge facing the two presidential candidates. But this economically ravaged region, once so solidly Democratic, poses a particular hurdle for Senator Obama. From the desolation of Aliquippa — where the Jones & Laughlin steel mill loomed at the foot of the main boulevard — to the fading beauty of Beaver Falls to the neatly tended homes of retired steel workers in Hopewell, one hears much hesitating talk about Mr. Obama, some simply quizzical or skeptically political, and some not-so-subtly racial.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York ran 40 percentage points ahead of Mr. Obama here during the Democratic primary. With its neighborhoods of white working-class laborers and retirees and fraying party loyalties, it has become a most uncertain political terrain and an inviting target for Mr. McCain — and one that could tip the electoral balance in Pennsylvania, a place packed with electoral votes....

***

Many voters talk of reading a stream of false and shadowy rumors purveyed by e-mail: Mr. Obama does not put his hand on his heart during the national anthem, he is a Muslim, he did not say hello to enlisted men in Afghanistan. Some disregard these rumors; some do not.

Mr. Obama is an Ivy League-educated lawyer campaigning in towns where an eighth-grade education and a sturdy back once purchased a good life. And he talks of soaring hope to people mistrustful of the same. “People around here want pragmatic, practical language,” said...the 49-year-old daughter of a steel-mill worker and a liberal activist. “They don’t want high-flown talk.” This said, Mr. McCain quickens few pulses. Vietnam, where he served in the military and was held captive for more than five years, seems distant. And not all laugh at his commercials poking fun at Mr. Obama’s “celebrity” status. Fifty yards down the gravel road from Mr. Timko’s home is...a pharmacy worker who describes herself as a “Hillary girl” but is fine with Mr. Obama. As for Mr. McCain? “I don’t like his commercials — it’s like he thinks we’re stupid,”...

***

Nationally, the Obama campaign shies from talk of race, preferring to argue that the poor economy will dominate this election. Such delicacy holds no purchase here. An organizer with the United Steelworkers met with 30 workers in Beaver. He could not have been blunter. Mr. Obama, he told them, stands for national health care, strong unions and preserving Social Security. “Some of you won’t vote for him because he’s black,” the organizer concluded. “Well, he’s a Democrat. Get over it.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/21/us/politics/21penn.html?hp=&pagewanted=all

[MercutioATC]

1. This is exactly the demographic that Brian Schweitzer would win over.

...and there's a lot of them out there...

[BlooInBloo]

4. Yup. And it's a bit easier out west even, and PA's not really a question mark anyway....

and, and, and that's partly why Schweitzer is my fav choice. :)

[AlinPA]

14. I live in PA and agree.

[babylonsister]

2. "But this economically ravaged region, once so solidly Democratic"

Is that true?

[DeepModem Mom]

8. A little more on that --

"Raccoon Township, with a population just over 3,000, sprawls atop a hill in Beaver County, a 92 percent white and deeply blue-collar province. For a century it formed a stud in the Steel Necklace, a stretch of Pennsylvania and Ohio defined by belching steel mills and robust union wages. But as the mills shuttered, voters tipped Democratic by ever-narrower margins: Al Gore bested George W. Bush by eight percentage points in 2000; John Kerry took Mr. Bush by fewer than three in 2004."

[Cosmocat]

15. The article confuses ...

the REGION is south western PA, which, yes, was more solidly democratic at one time and sadly has moved toward the right a bit ... BUT, the state as a whole is trending blue with south EASTERN PA, specifically Philly, trending from R to D, and where a very substancial proportion of the population/voters live ...

Rick Santorum was one of the most powerful Rs in the country, and a political machine in the state ... He lost two years ago to Bob Casey ... Now, Casey is just a step short of being "life" but other than that Santorum outspent him 2 to 1, and Casey SMOKED him ...

Right now, BO has not polled less than 4 points up in PA, and is consistently in the 5-6 point up range ...

IMO, the reason McCain has started talking about Ridge is that he has poured a BOATLOAD of money into advertising in the state and the polls have not moved in his direction much if at all ... I think he knows he can't win PA without Ridge, and IMO, he still is only a 30% shot at winning Pa WITH Ridge ...

One other note, BO has a fantastic ground game here from the primary ... I live in mid central Pa, admittedly Penn State territory, the only central Pa county that BO beat Hill in ... But, the county office/BO grand REopening had 200 people, the McCain office opening had two dozen ... As an example ... AND, since the start of the primary, the state has registered, literally HUNDREDS of thousands of new democratic voters ...

I find it endlessly agitating to hear the MSM talking heads continually lump Pa into the mix of other states that are definitely in play ... BO COULD lost PA, but if he does, he will have lost by a massive wipeout ... Pa goes to McCain only if he completely blows BO out of the water ... It is not one of the "swing" states ...

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. I approve of that blunt talk...

Sometimes you just have to get the unspeakable out in the open, and make people deal with it.

I applaud this organizer for doing just that.

It's the bottom line, IMHO.

[Pirate Smile]

11. Me too. Great article. Those are the people that need to be making that argument also.

Barack can't do it.

The politicians and organizers they trust need to be going there and saying it.

[wvbygod]

16. The organizer had no reason to project his bias

Nowhere does he document why he *thinks* there are racists in the audience.

Shameful projection on his part and perhaps *he* has some unresolved internal prejudices.

[AspenRose]

23. Why does he need to document it?

He just might know something....he just might not. We don't know.

But we DO know from the primary fight in PA and in your state of WV (where I spent a year) that folks have said they would not vote for Obama because he is black. That's TRUE. Wishing it wasn't true or becoming indignant when someone brings it up won't change that fact.

Does it mean everyone in PA, OH and WV are racists? No. Does it mean YOU'RE a racist because you're from there? No. Does it mean there are some race issues there? Yes. And addressing them head-on is good. Accusing folks of having some sort of bias for pointing out obvious concerns is not being truthful or helpful.

And I'd be the first to NOT paint a broad brush picture of folks from that area, even though I certainly experienced plenty of prejudice there firsthand.

Peace.

[Arugula Latte]

5. If these people can't get over their own prejudices and ignorance

they DESERVE to lose their jobs and their houses. :grr:

[wvbygod]

17. "these people"???

Sounds like you may have your own prejudices and ignorance towards them. Not anywhere in the
article is it documented or even hinted that "these people" are racist, prejudiced or ignorant.
We have some "organizer" making a bigoted and ignorant remark with no basis for it at all.

[Arugula Latte]

22. Oh really? This is what I was referring to:

"Many voters talk of reading a stream of false and shadowy rumors purveyed by e-mail: Mr. Obama does not put his hand on his heart during the national anthem, he is a Muslim, he did not say hello to enlisted men in Afghanistan. Some disregard these rumors; some do not."

[rug]

19. You're a fuckin idiot.

[Arugula Latte]

21. Yeah, well, I'm not the one who believes Obama is a Muslim, contrary to all evidence.

[scheming daemons]

6. These are my people... my family and friends.... sigh.... fucking sigh.....

[TwilightGardener]

7. Western PA is subtly racist--a lot of eastern and southern Europeans

and Slavic folk, heavily Catholic, and very traditional and clannish and suspicious. Pittsburgh and western PA was the only place I lived (grew up there) where people routinely inquire about your nationality, because then they can judge you.

[wvbygod]

18. Sounds like you have judged them

When you have to stereotype someone to try and show their stereotyping the argument is over.

[greguganus]

24. I'm Slavic..thanks .n/t

[Pirate Smile]

9. That article is what Obama was trying to explain to people in San Francisco at the fundraiser.

The bitter comments. Someone even mentions it

Fifty yards down the gravel road from Mr. Timko’s home, Brenda Goff, 55, a pharmacy worker who describes herself as a “Hillary girl” but is fine with Mr. Obama. As for Mr. McCain?
“I don’t like his commercials — it’s like he thinks we’re stupid,” Ms. Goff said.

Issues might seem to break toward Mr. Obama. Only 2 of 38 people interviewed — most in random door-knocking — favored remaining in Iraq. (Mr. Obama advocates a 16-month withdrawal timetable; Mr. McCain vows to stay until the war is won but suggests that he would have troops out by 2013.)

Few want a handout, but fewer want government to abandon them. A simmering hurt suffuses their words, a sense that neither hard work nor their unions could save them.

James Stanford, a retired and still heavily muscled steel worker, stood at his door and spoke of a pension that had evaporated. “Obama got one thing right,” he said. “We are bitter here.”

I love the Hillary Girl and Stanford. It is sad though.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

10. Lots of Archie Bunker's out there.

[rug]

20. Do you usually see the world through 70s sitcoms?

[greguganus]

25. And a few Archie Bunkers in here too. n/t

[MarjorieG]

12. And Hillary bad-mouthing BO all over there in the primaries. She needs to go back there for us.

[FrenchieCat]

13. Yes she does.

Go and take those words back. She would be able to get it done, if she wants to.