The call of business required my attendance last night at the Philadelphia-area Sheet Metal Workers Local Annual Scholarship dinner, a gala affair with several hundred (perhaps close to a thousand) in attendance. The Sheet Metal Workers are big time supporters of Clinton; campaign posters and signs were in abundance, bumper stickers and buttons were available in the lobby. The featured speaker was Hugh Rodham, HRC's slightly infamous brother. The crowd was NOT your typical Obama crowd: overwhelming white, older, leaders of many of the local building trades and their spouses. You'd think Hugh would get a rousing reception, right? Not so.
He spoke for no more than 10 minutes, spent much of his time recounting his embarassing Senate run against Connie Mack in Fla. (He lost 70% to 30%), and told some pathetic anecdote about Hillary asking her father for an allowance when she was a little girl, because all the other girls in her neighborhood got allowances, and her father responding by passing her a piece of bread and saying, "there's your allowance." Maybe I was seeing what I wanted to see, and hearing what I wanted to hear, but I'd say fully a third of the audience turned away from him, sitting as I did in stony silence. In the end, there was a smattering of applause, and no one stood up as Rodham lumbered back to his seat.
Of course, Obama will OWN Philadelphia on April 22nd, the question is only by how much, and whether Mayor Nutter and Rendell can depress turnout here ( itself a depressing thought for "American's Mayor"). But the point is, this crowd at this event should have been wildly enthusiastic for Hillary. And at least by the reception it gave brother Hugh, they just weren't.