Hello, PA people... this is in re "A small piece of Pennsylvania"...

[ralbertson]

...which is an OP that I posted in GD earlier this evening, where of course it got totally swamped by the tsunami of totally redundant amateur bloviating over Spitzergate. OMFG!11! Oh noes!! This is HUGH!11!!!

Sigh.

IIRC, I'm not supposed to just repost entire OP's from one forum to a sub-forum, so I guess all I can do is to quote myself a bit here and point you to the main post, which is here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2985151

FYI, I'm not living in PA at the moment. But I'm from there, my family's still there, I've spent a lot of time there over the last few years, and I thought it was high time to cut through all the noise and give people a clue as to what is and, more importantly, isn't the conventional wisdom about the *real* Pennsylvania these days...

A small piece of Pennsylvania

Everybody's eyes are on Pennysylvania these days. Thanks to the whipsaw nature of the Democratic presidential primary race this year, Pennsylvania's in the spotlight when it comes to electoral politics on the national stage. People everywhere are talking about Pennsylvania -- what it is, what it's like, what it all means. Pundits are pontificating right and left about Pennsylvania voters -- who they are, who're they're for, what they're going to do on April 22. And, inevitably, most of them are wrong a lot of the time.

Pennsylvania is just like Ohio, the talking heads are telling us. Well, yes and no. Some parts of Pennsylvania are just like parts of Ohio, demographically speaking. Other parts, not so much. Pennsylvania is a very big place. And, like Ohio, it's a very diverse place, with different parts of the state displaying significantly different historical and sociocultural influences.

The Appalachian Mountains run diagonally through Pennsylvania from lower left to upper right, physically as well as demographically dividing it into several dissimilar environments. Fully a third of the state's 12 million residents live in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, which bustles along the Delaware River valley in the southeastern corner of PA and sprawls across the Delaware and New Jersey lines to include another 2 million of their neighbors.

Another 2-1/2 million Pennsylvanians live in the southwestern part of the state, in the greater Pittsburgh area, near the upper edge of some of the most rugged parts of the Appalachians. While the sociocultural roots of PA's two biggest population centers could hardly be more different, they are both large, sophisticated urban centers and day-to-day life for their residents is more similar than not.

The day-to-day lives of people in Pittsburgh and Philly may be similar, but they are quite different from day-to-day life in the old coal-mining and steel towns of the Lehigh Valley, or the bucolic farmlands of the northwestern region, or the high-tech haven of State College, or the Amish country along the Maryland border, or the forested hills that share a border with western New York. Nearly half the population of Pennsylvania is spread out thinly but relatively evenly in small towns and villages all across the state.

That's the reason for another oft-repeated (and, in many ways, also wrong) quote that the pundits love to trot out when they're discussing Pennsylvania politics. Yes, James Carville did in fact say that "Pennsylvania is Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Alabama in between." But he said it in 1986, when the state's demographics were quite different than they are today. And he said it in the context of an in-state election, not a presidential primary, when Carville ran his first big race for former Governor Bob Casey, Sr.

{snip}

Erie, PA is in many ways an archetypical microcosm of middle American thoughts, tastes, and values -- so much so that it has always been one of the advertising and marketing industry's favorite test markets. (In fact, the "McSame" political ads that a pro-Democratic 527 group is rolling out were first tested in Erie several weeks ago.) If it works in Erie, it'll work most everywhere else. If it won't work in Erie, though, it probably won't work anywhere else between the coasts. Erie's not an easy sell, and never has been. According to George Burns, back in the vaudeville days the standard marker phrase was, "if you think you're good, play Erie."

I grew up in Erie, and I still have family there. I was able to spend a good bit of time in Erie during and since the 2004 election cycle, and I keep track of what the political feel is like on the ground there. Like the rest of the country, I'll be watching closely to see what happens in Pennsylvania in the weeks leading up to its April 22 primaries. But because of what I know about the current lay of the land in Erie, I think a lot of those pundits pontificating about what Pennsylvania's going to do politically in 2008 based on something James Carville said in 1986 are going to be surprised at just how wrong they turn out to be this time around.

P.S. -- PM me if any of you ever want to talk shop.

[blue neen]

1. I live in West moreland County, not very far removed from Pittsburgh.

This county has a Democratic registration edge but has gone for Bush in the last two elections. I am still undecided but very strongly leaning Obama after the latest Hillary antics.

Obama definitely has a chance here. He should hold a rally near Vandergrift, a Democratic-voting town that has been hard hit by the loss of steel jobs, NAFTA, and the recession. At the very least, Obama should have a campaign headquarters closer to Westmoreland and Fayette counties than downtown Pittsburgh.

[FREEWILL56]

2. Interesting, but do you reflect to know the disgust many Dems in my area

are feeling right now over the Democratic leadership in allowing the media to pick our choices for nomination based on the greatest controversial show-making abilities allowing our due process into being a joke? I will not vote for either and will do a write-in vote for DK. Even past polls on the DU time and time again had shown at least 80% of all DUers were going for either DK or JE and I find it difficult to believe that those on DU are that far removed from other Dems in the country. I find it strange and deplorable that Democracy is lacking in the Democratic party to allow the media to do the picking of the nominees while those in the party with true leadership and grassroots fiber and abilities have been attacked from within to allow for the media fiasco of our lesser candidates to take place.
How's this for talking shop as I have been a long time Democrat and never voted for a republican, but I'm scared at the direction the republicans have gone with our country, as they've gone nuts, with our party leaning right to take their old place? I may go independent by the 2012 election if this does not change.