My mother has a friend* who's a retired English professor from one of PA's state teachers' colleges, and this friend has all kind of virulent, half-crazy, easily-verified-to-be-mistaken theories about Obama. To think that this woman actually taught at an institution of higher learning is, well, unnerving.

* Oh, I should say, my mother had said friend. There was one incident of Obama hatred post-PA primary with this friend that I think was the last straw as far as my mom is concerned.

This is what I don't understand: the people in this story went out of their way to vote for a democrat, and a woman at that. So I would think they would have to be relatively progressive. So how is it such a huge number of these people not only end their progressive ideology at race, but would go as far as to vote against their party (not to mention their interests)?

I know, I'm trying to apply logic to white americans. I'll go ahead and ask what is the meaning of life while I'm at it...

Kind of like how utter ignoramus anti-WTO protesters were all over the TV, or the stupidest clown on the block was always the guy representing the anti-war protesters on CNN. Kind of like that wackjob Hillary fan that was all over the news on the last night of vote counting.

This is confirmation bias. It's your pit bull stories biting you in the ass: an editor tells reporters to go out and find somebody colorful, and the look and look until they find somebody that makes a big impression. It's hype.

Of course, the knee-jerk HRC-haters would have had me in the same place if she had won...given their gender/race, each candidate had a weirdsville contingent that was against them for the most ridiculous reasons.

I just hope to god this crowd comes around enough to vote the right way, or at least stay home and not vote the wrong way. Fucking freaks.

I'll tell you what really makes me scoff about the Erica C. Barnett contingent's constant carping about this endemic wall of sexism that Hillary had to overcome. It runs completely against everything I've heard, especially from my home state.

Won't vote for a woman? The ignorant people where I come from have by and large embraced Hillary as one of their own--and voted for her. These are the same folks who have by and large embraced Gov. Ed Rendell (a Jew) as one of their own--and voted for him.

Of course, Hillary faced Obama in her election. And Rendell faced Lynn Swann (black guy) in his election. So yeah, you could say they both had home-court advantage as the lesser of two evils.

Maybe I could make my point better this way: I just haven't witnessed the wild animosity towards Hillary in PA that I have witnessed against Obama.

I think I'm digressing...

There's your mistake right there. The Democratic Party is a conglomerate of many voting constituencies, not all of which you would ever consider "progressive". Plenty of old-school Democrats would downright repulse you with their ideas.

And I agree with cressona@13 - I can completely imagine the old folks in my Rust Belt hometown coming out for a white female candidate in droves long before voting for someone the same color as those scary folks down the street.

But they also like familiarity. Which is why Arlen Specter is still around and Casey (legacy) and Rendell are comfort food.

And @16: If you're going to debunk things, debunk them all (and well). He does say the pledge of allegiance, the claim that he doesn't is a total fabrication. And he, um, unfortunately has caved on the lapel pin issue (one of the most amazingly stupid contrived reasons to oppose someone I've ever seen...and we've seen some whoppers just this year!).

I have noticed I get along with montana people who happen to be republicans, maybe it's the libertarian nature...I dont know if georgians are salvigible but obama might win over some western whites with a little triangulation. maybe emphizing a balanced budget above all else

i digrisse

If the voters in the corners of the state turn out (Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Scranton-Wilkes Barre, and Erie), PA will go blue in Nov. Otherwise...well, who knows?

@21, actually, suburban Pittsburg is mostly middle- to upper-class, professional, white, and Republican - except for the suburbs right outside the city (Allegheny County is weird in that it has a ton of tiny, independent municipalities that ring the city proper). The outer suburbs of Pittsburgh almost always go Republican. The inner suburbs are almost all poor or working class, and about 3/4 of them are predominantly African-American.

Racism is alive and kicking there, take my word for it, you moss-covered liberal tree-huggers. There's an assload of pickleheaded types that Hillary did so well with (the hard-working white folk!) that would dismantle their gun rack before voting for some dark person.

Obama may make it close in Pennsy but I don't think there's any way he wins the state.

Tell me why her winning most of the primaries in the last few months should lead the superdelegates to vote for Hillary? Tell me why the superdelegates should not, instead, have committed themselves to Barack after he won 12 primaries in a row.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Results_of_the_2008_Democratic_Party_presidential_primaries

Correct. See @31 and @40.

And who cares if the caucuses were "overrun" by Obama supporters? Isn't that the fucking point?