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Democratic Primary Preview: Keys to Victory in the Keystone State

Posted by Faye Anderson on Apr 21st 2008 8:30AM
Filed under: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton

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Barack Obama rocked the City of Brotherly Love on Friday. An estimated 35,000 people jammed into Independence Mall for the "On Track for Change Rally."

Folks began gathering hours before Obama was scheduled to speak. As I walked towards Market Street, I heard the crowd chant:
"We're fired up and ready to go!"




In the shadow of Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, Obama took center stage and declared:
We can declare independence from the say-anything, do-anything politics that's all about how to win and not why we should; that politics that exploits our differences instead of speaking to our common concerns and our common destinies as Americans. ...

I'm running to change the game in Washington. I'm not running to fit in. I'm running to change Washington.
Obama has won the endorsement of the Philadelphia Inquirer:
The 46-year-old Obama offers the better chance of rising above the partisan rancor in Washington to achieve bipartisan goals. After eight years of George W. Bush's my-way-or-the-highway rule, Obama could become the uniter that Bush never was. His campaign has attracted people of all backgrounds and political persuasions.
Though African Americans make up nearly half of the city's Democratic primary voters, Obama has steered clear of predominately black neighborhoods. Still, Philadelphia is signed, sealed and delivered.

But the election will be decided by voters in the Philly suburbs, and Western and South Central Pennsylvania. As the Inquirer editorialized:
Unfortunately, Obama followed up that memorable speech with a gaffe about "bitter" small-town Pennsylvanians clinging to religion and guns. He still hasn't explained adequately what he really meant. For someone whose eloquence usually seems effortless, it was an unforced blunder that may have cost him the chance to put away Clinton here and now.
Indeed, voters in the land of the cling-ons will likely keep Clinton "hanging on."

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