I just had to pass on this link to a new NYT story about the Clinton campaign's plans to use the Rodham family's working-class background in Scranton to solidify her status there in favorable parts of Pennsylvania.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
The comment I'd like to make on this: In 2000, Hillary ran for Senator, where it was thought (and rightly so) that Upstate New York would tough ground for her to take. It didn't turn out to be, so much; she was pretty successful at playing First Lady and keeping Bill highly visible on a leash. That worked... eight years ago.
However, if she'd ever used the "Scranton strategy" with Upstate voters, it probably would have worked very well for her. Although there are no coal mines here, a lot of Upstate New York is in the so-called "Dunder Mifflin Triangle" - same working-class history, hit by the same globalization forces, same determination to survive.
But she never used the strategy here in 2000. I honestly didn't really think she ever THOUGHT of her own biography as an electoral strategy, which is why this story is pretty interesting: She seems to be mutating and calling on resources she hadn't called on before.
Don't know what that means, but one hopes Obama can keep up with that sort of thing, as I think Clinton intends to keep moving the goal posts.