Sunday: Live from Scranton

In the Democrats for McCain Office in Scranton

If you’ve been wondering where I’ve been, let me just say that my navigator has 2 different addresses for N.Main Ave. in Scranton and neither one was the one I needed.

I am at Democrats for McCain Headquarters in downtown Scranton and this place is buzzing. There are a LOT of people in this little office. We are waiting for the canvassers to return. Harriet Christian is trying to catch McCain at the airport. She and her bus posse tried to get into his rally here in Scranton earlier this afternoon but were turned away by the fire marshall. The place was overflowing.

The canvassers tell me that direct contacts are going very well but that phone banking is more difficult. Well, phone banking always sucks. It’s hard to know what to say and it’s even harder to not take it personally when someone hangs up on you.

Harriet Christian takes a break

I recognize a lot of the volunteers here from Denver. They are the die hard PUMAs who were determined that the DNC were not going to get the best of them. But the manager of this office, Carol, made her decision when Hillary suspended her campaign. Carol realized that she had to make a decision between Obama and McCain so she took a good look at the resumes of both candidates and found Obama’s lacking. She was concerned that Obama had only 142 days on the job before he decided to run for president. Carol knows that country is going to go through a very rocky period of time in the next four years and she was very concerned that Obama’s lack of experience and thin knowledge base would make it difficult for him to know how to mobilize the mechanisms of government for the benefit of the country. As a Pennsylvanian from the Scranton area, she was offended by Obama’s remarks regarding bitter small towners who cling to God and guns. Obama hasn’t reached out to the working class and the sexism really got under Carol’s skin. She decided in McCain’s favor. Then, this former Hillary supporter approached the McCain campaign and convinced them to open an office for Democrats for McCain because she felt this area of Pennsylvania would be receptive to McCain’s message.

Carol, Hillary campaigner, feminist, McCain Supporter

The message that appeals to Carol has a lot to do with the local economy. This is coal country and the past decade of outsourcing has devastated local industry. She likes McCain’s message on clean coal and believes that McCain will work across the aisle to help opportunity come back to the Scranton area. She’s also concerned that Obama is making promises regarding healthcare that he can not fulfill. She doesn’t know what Obama believes. She can’t pin him down and this worries her. Carol feels she knows McCain, his character and she has confidence and trust in his ability to lead. So, Carol is a believer. She’s probably a little more conservative than the typical PUMA but she believes that the loss of Hillary in this race is a tragic loss for the country.

Harriet and Betty Jean are back from the airport. They were turned down at the rally for McCain because there wasn’t room. So they high tailed it to the airport with their signs in the hope they could see him. They saw McCain’s car drive onto the tarmac and were despondent when the car headed away from them. Then, the car abruptly turned around and John McCain leapt out of the car and he ran over to the group with a huge smile on his face. Cindy and Joe Lieberman quickly followed. Betty Jean said McCain was quicker than the Secret Service who had to run to keep up with him. McCain thanked them enthusiastically and hugged Betty Jean. It made her day.

[UPDATE by Katiebird]

Riverdaughter sent me this link to an Australian publication that’s covering the election.  The 6th photo is from the Democrats for McCain office.

Breaking!: Radio Talk Host Had it with Racism Accusation

This little ditty was sent in by commenter Nana. It looks like the Obamaphiles have pushed the envelope:

WooHoo……………….Wilk talk radio here in Scranton, PA is going wild this afternoon. Host Steve Corbett has had it with being called a racist for supporting Hillary Clinton and has stated he will not vote for Obama. The lines are going crazy with calls from people in NE PA who feel the same way. They will not vote for Obama and will vote for McCain if they have to to stop him. The mementum is starting against the Democratic Party. Keep it going all over the USA

Tuesday Follow-up

We left a few things hanging recently, so here’s a little more to chew on:

• Regarding Linda Hirshman’s pink slip from TalkingPointsMemo, I don’t think it is a coincidence that there are at least two Obama ads on the frontpage at TPM at all times. They swap places, sometimes showing up in the banner, the sidepanel or body. Now, what does it say about TPM that it would deliberately smother any discussion of female voting patterns? And better yet, what does it say about the Obama campaign that it would associate itself with a blog that takes an action that appears to further drown out women’s voices in the left blogosphere? Hmmm, if I were an ambitious internet director for an up and coming post-racial, post-gender transcendent candidate and I wanted to make my voice LOUDER, what would be the harm of trying to purge my opponent’s supporters off the biggest billboards. So, I have a few conference calls with my blogger boyz, (let’s call them Bos and Posh) throw some big ad money around and indirectly suggest that if they are going to be included in future calls and ad revenue, they *might* want to be a little more proactive about my candidate. When does a little pruning turns into a gender cleansing? So, they got a little carried away, irrationally exuberant, so what. It’s not like there are “any women out there”. (“But *why* can’t women go to a stonin’, Mum? ” “It is WRITTEN!”) We really need to address the Obama campaign about this. Either he stops his people from encouraging the anti-female pogrom or he perpetuates the idea that women have no place or power in the public sphere. Shouldn’t the rest of the primary state voters know where he stands on the matter?  Update: Interesting, Josh has pulled the Obama ads from his site.  They were all over the frontpage yesterday but today?  Nada.  Curiouser and Curiouser.
• How conveeeeenient. So, Senator Chris Dodd, now a fervent Obama supporter, thinks it would be all ticketyboo to just split the Florida and Michigan delegates 50/50 and then they wouldn’t have to have a redo! That would be like giving Obama unearned delegates! Isn’t that cool?? JAYsus, how much of a handicap do we need to give Obama for him to actually win this thing?! (Whoo-boy, you REALLY don’t want to go there, Chris. When the GOP 527’s get through with the whole notion of a quota and affirmative action, Obama will be the least electable pol on the planet. And I’m not being racist here. I’m being *clairvoyant* based on experience.) And what about the Floridians who voted in overwhelming numbers for Clinton? Don’t they count, Chris? You guys just don’t get it. Anything less than self-determination on Florida’s part is going to earn you their unending ire. Now, Jennifer Granholm might want to contemplate just giving all the “uncommitted” votes to Obama but first your guy has to be willing to accept the outcome and seat both delegations as is or be willing to do the whole thing over. And I haven’t heard it.
• Taylor Marsh has an excellent piece about why powerful men turn to prostitution. She’s done her research. Don’t miss it.
• Little Hillary Rodham was a cutey in a video dug up by the NYTimes. She looks to be about three and is running around in the film on the day of her brother Hugh’s christening. Hillary’s grandparents lived in Scranton, PA in the upper northeast corner of Pennsylvania. Check it out.
• I’ve always been fascinated by Scandinavian culture. Some of my favorite books on the oddly emotional yet stoic warlike Norwegians are by Nobel prize winning author Sigrid Undset. Her book, The Axe, from the Master of Hestviken series, brought me to tears. And the Kristen Lavransdatter series is one that women of any age and time can relate to. The Norwegians, Swedes and Danes have been hashing it out for centuries and even though they are virtually indistinguishable to us, they seem inscrutable to one another. (Rent Kitchen Stories for a an example of what happens when you take a Swedish statistician and put him in a high chair to observe the kitchen patterns of a Norwegian bachelor farmer. LOL! Ok, it’s funnier than it sounds, trust me.) But it turns out that they are not done yet. No, they are still fighting over some ill-gotten booty that the Swedes swiped from the Danes 350 years ago and the Danish are still sensitive over it. The line about the doormat names at Ikea is hillarious. Ok, sorry guys, just give the stuff back and there will be no raiding parties.

Not done yet but publishing anyway…