This report comes to you from a small town in SW PA, about 50 miles east of Pittsburgh. And yes, I am most certainly bitter but I don't cling to any religion or any guns. Still, I feel that Sen. Obama hit the nail on the head - with the wrong words.
I voted today. I took my two voting-age sons with me and showed them a few things. It was truly a moment of pride for me to show up at a polling place with my sons.
What we saw there is below the fold.
Turnout seemed very light considering the importance of this primary. When we voted at 5:45PM, I let the boys vote first and I was only the 332nd person to vote at that polling place today. The November, 2006 election saw a MUCH heavier turnout, but that seems to be typical for most states - the primaries just don't get the respect that the general elections do. I've voted late in some of the generals and been in the high 600's to low 700's.
The poll workers (bless their souls, it's a thankless unpaid job) reported that all three of the electronic voting machines were working perfectly and that no voters had any major complaints.
Hillary had a campaigner at my polling place. Obama would have had one too, but my team captain never called me to let me know what polling place I was assigned. I've seen sharper knives in the drawer of life.
The weather here was perfect today, with plenty of sunshine and warm temperatures for this time of year in a state north of the Mason-Dixon line. Nobody can claim that they didn't vote because of snow or rain - a common excuse around here for not voting.
The poll workers would not tell me anything about the level of turnout for Dems vs. Repubs, so I can't help you there. I'm fairly certain that alot of Repubs didn't bother showing up today. I would bet the house and garage that the turnout of Dems far outweighed the Repub turnout - but that's just a "gut feeling" from a lifelong PA resident and regular voter.
I'm predicting that Hillary will, of course, win PA. That was NEVER in question. The margin of victory is the important thing to watch. She came into this state with poll numbers giving her a lead of 20% over Senator Obama. If her campaign and her issue positions and her presence here was unable to sustain or extend that lead - that tells a HUGE story. I'm gonna predict that Hillary wins 54% to Obama's 46% MAX. I could end up being a little closer. Even if she wins by 9 or 10 percent - it's an enormous victory for the Obama campaign, cutting her lead by more than half.
Reporting from Westmoreland County, PA, this is Celtic Merlin for station wKos news.