April 22, 2008

Last pre-results PA Primary thoughts....

By Fester:

Finally, we are here, and I have voted for Obama. Turnout at my polling place this morning was solid but not spectacular. There are two precincts at my polling place. Each had a line of two or three voters waiting/signing-in while the three machines at each precinct were being used by voters. One machine in Division 7, Swissvale was already going glitchy by 7:25AM. I was the youngest voter there and I am in my late 20s (odd to think of myself as that instead of mid-20s). The gender mix was roughly 50:50 male/female during the first half hour of voting. I hung around because I saw a bunch of my neighbors and we got to talking for a bit.

My initial impression is that the polling place is break even to slightly Obama favorable but that both candidates are acceptable. A lot of people were struggling to make a decision as there is a lot of loyalty to the Clinton family but also a recognition of the DLC defensive crouch is the wrong posture moving forward. Undecideds and late deciders were breaking about even. But I really don't care too much about that, the discussion on the sidewalk as a group of us engaged in dog-watching and coffee klatching is essential to a healthy democracy. People were motivated to vote and happy to engage with their neighbors. This is a good thing. As my wife noted over breakfast, this primary could have been a whole lot dirtier, (it has had its moments) but overall the voter registration and voter affiliation changes are a good thing.

Now for some real news. I went to the Hillary Clinton rally at Market Square in Pittsburgh yesterday and I was thoroughly unimpressed. The crowd occupied about half the space in a 300 foot by 300 foot public space and it was not even a densely packed crowd. A couple of thousand people at most showed up, including some number of political tourists like myself and my co-workers who just wanted to see the spectacle. The crowd was overwhelmingly white, with a good diversity of ages, and a bit more female than male, but not massively so. It was not that good of a spectacle --- the audio system was horrendous, there was no video equipment and Bill Clinton in his warm-up act was falling flat and seemed tired. His speech was small bore policy wonkery. Interesting stuff but not a good warm-up act. Hillary is a decent public speaker but that is about it as she gave a fairly standard stump speech. She had a few applause lines but the crowd was much quieter than I thought it would have been. Not bad, but not a great rally the troops for the last door knocking rush.

I could not make the Obama rally last night as I had prior committments, but a friend did and she said it was packed and rocking. How much does this matter versus how much is a difference in demographics is another question and one that I am not qualified to answer right now.

I may update tonight, but I'll be tied up at Drinking Liberally @ Buffalo Blues and then on the air with the Shaun OMac show at 10:00pm EST so I don't know how much time I'll have to write this evening.

Posted at 09:22 AM in Candidates | Permalink