Pennsylvania: Safe Win For Clinton? Maybe Not ..

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT/Reuters: Pennsylvania: Safe Win For Clinton? Maybe Not ..
By REUTERS
Published: March 9, 2008

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Pennsylvania, the biggest remaining state in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, should be a safe win for Hillary Clinton but experts say there are pockets of vulnerability for Barack Obama to exploit. "If the election were held today it would probably be Senator Clinton by 10 points, but seven weeks in this crazy race, anything can happen," said Clay Richards, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute....

***

Clinton was ahead in the polls by as much as 20 percentage points at the start of the year but Obama's string of victories in February pushed him closer, narrowing the gap to just 6 points in the latest Quinnipiac poll in late February.

"Pennsylvania has more Catholics, more union members, more older voters, and fewer African Americans," said Terry Madonna, politics professor at Franklin & Marshall College. "This is pretty much a Clinton state. It's hers to lose."...

Sean Smith, a spokesman for Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, argued that the demographics claimed as friendly by the Clinton campaign had helped him win Wisconsin and could do so again. "We did extremely well in Wisconsin with the same types of voters," he said, pointing to older voters who were "absolutely open" to Obama's message of hope and change and "bringing the country together to solve our problems."

Richards of Quinnipiac said Obama needed to do three things to have a chance of winning: boost turnout among black voters, which is historically low in primaries, motivate students at the state's numerous universities and colleges, and win over affluent voters in the Philadelphia suburbs where Clinton is vulnerable....

***

Clinton's biggest vulnerability may be that expectations are high for her. "If she loses or only wins narrowly, her candidacy will be weakened, perhaps fatally," Madonna said....

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-usa-politics-pennsylvania.html

[papau]

1. true - a one to three point PA win hurts - a loss ends - the Hillary campaign

[TwilightGardener]

2. Obama needs to do three things:

1--Get Teddy Kennedy out there stumping for him. The old Catholic ethnics still love the Kennedys.
2--Get some Steelers to publicly back him! Can't go wrong there.
3--Focus on economy and geezer issues. More blue-hairs in PA than anywhere else.

[Bumblebee]

3. yes, Kennedy already helped him so much in Massachusetts

[aquart]

4. "Old Catholic ethnics." "Geezer issues." "More blue-hairs."

And I'm sure Kennedy will not show the contempt you show for these Americans.

But it seems clear what they're fate will be with people like you in charge. Tell me, do you believe they have any right to exist at all?

[Bumblebee]

5. Well, democracy apparently has its limits, plus many Obama

supporters still don't know that one day they themselves will be "geezers." I even read yesterday in this forum -- or it may have been the equally blindly pro-Obama Kos -- how bad it was that it snowed in Ohio this week as opposed to last week for otherwise the "geezers" would have stayed home and Obama would have won. That's what passes for being progressive these days, I guess. Agism and certain shades of homophobia and sexism are fine.

[aquart]

7. What a brave new world, that has such people in it!

[AtomicKitten]

6. Well, Limbaugh is looking forward to further mucking up the process.

He and Laura Ingram have stunk up the airwaves soliciting Rs to crossover and vote for Hillary for the sole and specific purpose of keeping her in to bloody up Barack (their words).

The piece de resistance was Bill Clinton appearing on Limbaugh's radio show the day before the election in Texas and Ohio.

Plus there are the reams of election fraud data rolling in, all to Hillary's favor and at Barack's expense, reminiscent of ......... 2000!!!!! I never thought I would ever live to see the Clintons in cahoots with the GOP to steal this election for Hillary.

If the Clintons prevail in highjacking this nomination, the Democratic Party will implode and a third party will rise out of the ashes.