Oh, and an update ... and thanks to anyone who sent out their thoughts, prayers and keen, keen eyes when I had a lost-object alert. The earrings have been recovered. I'm still on the lookout for the jump drive (no significant data loss, thank God) and my spare set of keys.
I'll be glad to find both of them, and I continue to look. Keep those good thoughts coming.
You've heard the news. You know the point spread -- almost double digits -- and you know the result. Obama has been pretty smart about targeting delegate-rich voting districts, although Clinton's been winning big states -- sometimes in squeakers. Obama seems on track to top the ticket unless Michigan and Florida are somehow heard from. In addition, you may know that Lance Rogers, the candidate endorsed by the Montgomery and Delaware county Republican organizations, won the right to compete this fall against state Rep. Daylin Leach to represent Pennsylvania's 17th State Senate District.
I don't yet have the breakdown of how my fellow voters in West Norriton 1-2 voted. But while the county went for Clinton by the slenderest of margins, Obama did win the poll I helped run. There, in West Norriton 4-2, voter turnout approached 50 percent. The 521 votes cast there (including nine absentee ballots) are the most they've seen at a primary election in recent years. The 2004 presidential vote cast there during the general election topped 600 in number.
We proved in 2004 -- and again yesterday -- that, no matter our party or our politics we respect the rights of our neighbors to vote. I'm getting to know by face (and in some cases by name) some of the voters there. Heck, I grew up with some of them. I get the feeling, by and large, people recognized that we did our best to handle crowds in the morning and evening with efficiency and respect and while maintaining our good humor and overall equanimity.
Speaking of good humor, I must thank WMMR's Pierre Robert (no relation to Rob Roberts of National Post fame) for the biggest belly laugh I got today. Apparently, Philadelphia was treated to what's normally a Times Square phenomenon: a naked cowboy. OK, Philly's version was a little more modest. He was only stripped down to his red white and blue jammies. But he was there with all the Hillary and Barack supporters lining Broad Street to greet the masses in the Election Day frenzy. The body paint on his chest read "COWBOYS FOR OBAMA." The Obama papa verified that he was in fact a supporter, but when Robert enquired as to whether the gent really was a cowboy the answer he got was, "Does it really matter?"
Oh, urban cowboy! Must the first casualty of politics be the truth?
Voting was brisk this morning on the border of West Norriton and Norristown. We'll see how this afternoon shapes up and whether there's an evening throng. The Marshall Street School is seeing a lot of first-time voters. There have been some independents frustrated that they had no primary of their own, and a few confused Republicans who thought they were Democrats.
And so far we've managed to get things up and running and keep things moving along.
More details tomorrow, if possible, or tonight, if there's anything worth reporting.
Where to begin?
Well, Obama was on my campus today. Clinton had been there a couple of weeks prior. Apparently her visit had been announced over a weekend, so there wasn't too much on-campus publicity about it.
His visit I heard about around noon today when a fellow student phoned to say classes were closed; buildings were locked. The gym, she said, was in lockdown. The first person with whom I spoke upon arrival to the gym (now open) said something about "a bomb," but that "everything was OK down here." When I said I sure hoped everything was OK all over the campus if they had any buildings at all open, he let slip that what people'd been calling a bomb was in fact Obama.
He was speaking on the patio outside the large, multicultural suburban college's cafeteria. He was protected by several local police departments (Abington was the farthest flung I noticed) and various other levels of police and security up to his ubiquitous Secret Service detail. The road leading to his speech location was wall-to-wall New York license plates, with the exception of an ABC News team out of Bucks County, Pa. A Prius with a New York livery car license plate drove Rachel Ray to the event. I couldn't make those kinds of details up, folks.
Obama took questions from the small crowd assembled for his visit, as a couple dozen people hoped to catch a glimpse of him outside. Unless I'm mistaken, the last question he took was from a young woman who asked whether seniors might pay a little more of their fair share of taxes to give Boomers and students some relief. Unless I'm terribly mistaken, Obama didn't say no. If he did, he took an awfully long time getting to no.
In other goings-on today, I had a pleasant chat with Samantha Gordon, Jon Corzine's aide (the one who was in the crash with him). Gordon has been with the Clinton campaign since the summer, and was front and center at her Norristown office. That place had a craft service table that would do a Hollywood production proud. And, no, I didn't even grab a bagel. Mmmmmmmm ... bagels.
Also, I'll try to bash out a post on my Yankee Stadium trip once I've rested up from Primary Day. For now, suffice it to say that I enjoyed myself -- and that New York City did itself proud.
The birds are singing and the sun's not yet risen here in West Norriton. The last thing I did last night before I set out my clothes for this morning was to pack a day's worth of food for our visit to the Bronx today: four lunch sandwiches (each one turkey plus a little bit of ham, roast beef and capicola, topped off with mustard and a tiny bit of horseradish), two peanut butter sandwiches for the morning or the ride home, almonds, raisins, oranges, apples and water. Plus cheese curls. I am not allowed to have cheese curls, but, hey, I packed for two.
I was so very serious when I said I'm not looking forward to the crowd. 60,000 or more people, even when gathered for something quite decent, are a bit to take. But I am looking forward to the day.
After I scan the news, I'm going to head learn how the Archdiocese of New York is planning to handle the distribution of communion to such numbers, and I'm going to check out the papal visit's Web site. I've already enjoyed a short piece from the wire, filed by the AP's Rachel Zoll, that lays out the schedule for Pope Benedict's last day in New York -- and strikes an even and hopeful tone.
Meanwhile, a quick scan of the news reveals that Danica Patrick has had some fun on the other side of the international date line. Looks like it's gonna be a good day, Tater.
I'll be the first to admit I'm having a hard time getting past the Holy Father's accent and his personal history. He is, however, at least talking about the plague of pedaphilia and sexual abuse that eats at my Church like a cancer.
Some of the people with whom the pope met yesterday at the chapel in the Vatican embassy are convinced his words show a change of heart. I continue to pray for all who are affected by these shameful acts, both victims and perpatrators. We can only hope that the Church, which is not known for swift change, can realize that evil done by its clergy compromises the good which is accomplished by religious people and institutions -- in addition to robbing people of their happiness and innocence.
I look forward to lifting those prayers up at Yankee Stadium in a throng of nearly 60,000 people Sunday. Well, OK, maybe I'm not looking forward to a throng ... but Mass should be fun.
Yes, I watched the debate broadcast from the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia last night, and it's been a long time since I've heard so many -- and so eloquent -- non-answers to questions.
It is, of course, not surprising that two career politicians (which by definition all modern presidential candidates have been) are skilled at stretching nothing into a one minute answer ready for the broadcast media and YouTube. But the Hillary and Barry show seems to be setting new standards for evading issues that are on Americans' minds.
I do not believe a man or woman must be a saint to be an effective, even heroic, president. But basic questions of honesty and patriotism are valid and fundamental issues on which voters legitimately decide elections. It is possible that Sen. Clinton cannot provide any better explanation for her having "misspoken" about her Bosnian experiences than she already has. It is also possible that Sen. Obama may not have much to say about a patriotism that is said to come from within. But if they cannot defend themselves against allegations that they are either dishonest on a basic level -- or that they do not keep alive a deep, abiding and tender love for this nation -- then they will not be elected to the White House. And they should not aspire to be there.
Kidnapped journalist Richard Butler has been released. The freelance producer, working for the CBS news magazine show 60 Minutes, had been kidnapped in Basra two months ago. He has, according to Iraqi officials, been doing fine since his rescue.
Meanwhile, New York Times correspondent Barry Bearak is expected to appear in a Zimbabwean court today to answer to charges related to his coverage of the recent elections there. Bearak was arrested April 3 in Harare.
Forget, for a minute, the game of Where's Waldo the national candidates and their supporters are playing with the voters of the Delaware Valley. (Cool though that game is, really.)
The Times Herald and the AP documented a protracted incident at the high school next door to my home. The problems began, officials said, when a student at Norristown High School had a loaded gun at school. Details were sketchy, but it seems two teachers may get in trouble for wrestling with the kid near the locker where the gun was believed to have been stored. Not five miles down the road is another school district where a home-schooled kid was arrested on allegations he was planning a Columbine-style attack on the local high school.
Who's going to help our cities, suburbs and towns combat the deadly violence that sees American killing American in what we refer to at home as peacetime? Are guns part of the problem? Could they possibly be part of the solution? What about when those who are armed are minors?
Clinton's camp is criticizing remarks Obama made about small-town Pennsylvania voters while he was speaking at a Terre Haute fund-raiser ( ... and at a California fund-raiser and at ... ) Well, clearly, what's said in Indiana doesn't stay in Indiana, and mood and attitudes of rust-belt voters are now at issue in the campaign. Big time.
Hear Obama's remarks on his perceptions of voter bitterness and disenfranchisement from Yahoo! via the AP.
Depending on which poll you reference, the Pennsylvania primary race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton is down to either an 8 percent or a 3 percent spread a week and a half before the election. NBC News' political reporter Chuck Todd was commenting on the statistical dead heat this morning on MSNBC, where he accurately identified Pennsylvania as having a strong history of machine-style politics. The ward and voting district system defines real political boundaries here. Local committeemen are strongly encouraged to be active, to walk their districts -- and state and even national committeemen are no strangers to most people who are actively involved in party politics.
I think it's a little unfair to refer to the commonwealth as a "fall-in-line state," though. This area is, at least on my side of the aisle, seeing more contested races at all levels in the primary than it has in recent history, and some non-endorsed candidates look like they have a shot at beating the natural incumbency advantage. Whether they can win in a general election is, of course, a different question.
I would also question how Todd comes to decide that there's an "automatic lever-pull" for Democrats in this race. Some, so used to grey-haired, grey-suited white candidates are really at a loss, and one of the challenges for both Obama and Clinton's campaigns in this contest is that they're competing for some of the same constituencies within the party: namely, people of color and trade unionists.
On another note, it seems Obama is really trying to live like a Pennsylvanian. Not only was he willing to make himself charmingly vulnerable at the bowling alley, but he has also recently popped up at two places I occasionally shop. He's been seen both at King of Prussia's megamall and at an East Norriton grocery store. Here's hoping he's supporting Pennsylvania's economy in between shaking folks' hands.
Am I naive to find what I read in the Philadelphia Business Journal shocking?
Next Post: The Invasion of the Vote-Snatchers
