Why Senator Clinton Will Win in Pennsylvania

I've found this Clinton/Obama campaign to be tremendously fun as well as frustrating. The whole concept of a primary election really offers the great opportunity for a party to really define itself through dialogue, along with the temptation for two candidates to destroy each other and limp toward November.

In the race between Senator Clinton & Senator Obama, I like them both. Senator Obabma's campaing gives me HOPE (talk about drinking the kool-aid!). The hope it gives me is a presidency under which faith and activism can be rightly connected and celebrated. That hope is what will probably put my primary vote in Obama's column.

I like Senator Clinton because I am convinced that electing a woman to be president has far more potential to change the course of our nation (for the better).

Anyways...to get to the point. The reason why Senator Clinton will win Pennsylvania was something she said on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. She talked about how we have devalued and disrespected careers in skilled labor (such as mechanics, plumbers, etc.). She went on to discuss how "going green" will be dependent on skilled labor to install all this new technology.

I now live in the Philadelphia suburbs, where this issue may not have a defining impact on the primary. However, I spent the first thirty years of my life living and working ALL OVER Pennsylvania. I've become a full-on Philadelphia type (except that I still bleed black & gold), but it is very true that the rest of this fair commonwealth is a very different place. I spent Easter dinner in the coal region listening to a blue collar democrat share his views on the current state of our nation. Most everyone he knows sees this as a race between "a woman and a black guy" (neither label being a good one). I'm glad they're being forced to get over that. I think Senator Clinton will do much better than Senator Obama in getting through to them. As far as policy goes, she should also do better than Senator McCain's "some jobs are never coming back" routine. At that point, however, the stereotypes of gender (and race if Senator Obama is the candidate) will play a role in this election that doesn't surprise me, but doesn't sit well at all.

I should also mention that after I was truly excited by Senator Clinton's talk about skilled labor, she went on to shovel an immense pile of manure on the issue of superdelegates. She said that the superdelegates votes don't count any more than the regular delegates. I can agree with that...HOWEVER...there's that annoying detail that the regular delegates will come to the convention riding on the wave of primary voters like me and the guy I talked to on Easter. Thousands of us will cast our vote to get that delegate there, while the superdelegate will be granted the same vote by simply being who they are.