Scranton is Hillary's "third" home, outside of Arkansas and New York, it's where her Grandfather is Buried. The blue collar town of 72,000+ poured out Sunday night to see Caroline Kennedy, Bob Casey and Senator Barack Obama.
Swampland pegs the crowd at 4,800, really quite a showing for a city widely suspected of potentially going 75%+ for Hillary...
Robert Gibbs told me earlier they’re looking to “draw votes.” Obama called the crowd “feisty” when they kept booing Hillary and they interrupted him a couple of times with chants of "Yes we can!"
At the Rally, Barack Obama took it to Hillary in a big way.
Difference #1:
“When she talks about experience what she really means is: 'I’ve been around the track quite a few times, I know how it works.’ So she takes more money from Washington lobbyists than any other candidate, Democrat or Republican, because she says, and she said this in a debate recently, that lobbyists are real Americans. Now, I don’t know if any of you have lobbyists in Washington representing you, but I don’t think so… Then this weekend she starts running ads saying, ‘Oh, no, no, he’s actually taking money from these folks,’ even though we have sent back money that was from lobbyists, we sent back money from PACS. But she just ignored the facts. And listen, understand the argument that she’s making. She’s essentially saying: “Yeah, I’m bad but he’s just as bad.’ What kind of argument is that? What kind of inspirational message is that?”
“Difference #2:
I think it’s important for the next president to tell the people what they need to hear. Not to say one thing in one place and say another thing in another place depending on what’s politically convenient. I mean, look, we can have a difference about trade policy and Nafta, but what you can’t do is you can’t you can’t campaign on behalf of Nafta when your husband’s the president and then say that you were against Nafta all along when you are running for president. You can’t do that. You can’t say that you’re opposed to the Colombian trade deal and then have your chief strategist lobby to pass the Colombian trade deal. You can’t do that. You can’t be for the war when it’s popular and then when it’s unpopular say I wasn’t voting for the war, I was voting for diplomacy.”
"And, finally, difference #3 (referring indirectly to the ABC debate):
I think we need to change the tone and the tenor of our politics so that we’re talking about real problems and no phony controversies. Where we’re trying to unify the country instead of divide it.”
Certainly fair reasons for Barack to win voters. He also did an exclusive Q&A here with the Scranton Time's Tribune, worth a read. The same paper has a good write up of the evening. This passage at the end stuck out to me, I can only dream of how it'll combine to talk to Undecideds looking at Monday's Paper for a reason to believe...
One formerly undecided voter was Erica Dougher, 30, of Scranton, a pharmacy manager, who carried daughter Ella, 4, on her shoulders before listening to Mr. Obama. She made up her mind after Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton debated Wednesday in Philadelphia, saying Mrs. Clinton was "nit-picking."
"I think I'm going for Obama," Ms. Dougher said. "It's just that he seems to be bringing something a little bit different and new, and the hope thing. He just seems to be really honest with what he says. I think I can believe him. ... I think he's more believable than Hillary."
Rob Schneider, 37, a sporting goods store owner from Conyngham in Luzerne County, said he was tired of fringe issues like gay rights, abortion and guns dominating the country's political debate and is taking "a leap of faith" that Mr. Obama will succeed.
"That doesn't affect my daily life," Mr. Schneider said. I see a gentlemen here that can cut through the fringe issues," he said. "He's an advocate for what is going to help me."
You see, when his message carries far and wide, voters are found, created, one by one. Today, in York, another Obama supporter did what we can all do... create a few votes. Check this out.
Teddy, Making Phone Calls... What are you Doing Monday?