Street corner politics are often the best politics.
If you want to meet the people, you go to the street. You hang out. You leave the entourage back at the campaign headquarters.
Most candidates for political office rarely hit the street.
That’s why Hillary Clinton’s St. Patrick’s Day march in Scranton a month before the Pennsylvania primary will go down in history as home style politics at its best. Hitting the street in her father’s hometown, where her Rodham family roots run deep, helped put her over the top in a resounding victory over her opponent Barack Obama.
But Obama is now the anointed one, the presumptive nominee who considers himself to be the one the world is waiting for.
We’ll see about that.
The race is young and Obama must win Northeastern Pennsylvania if he truly expects to win the White House.
As of now, that’s iffy.
Republican John McCain has as good a shot, if not a better chance, of beating Obama in the coal region.
Victory will go to whoever hits the streets the hardest.
Remember my words.
See which candidate takes us for granted.
If both campaigns’ strategists are smart, and they aren’t necessarily as knowledgeable as they might think, each candidate will stand on the very Scranton street corner where I stood yesterday morning giving a pep talk to some young volunteers who believe in their cause.
These young men and women were Obama volunteers who assembled to register voters and walk the streets, knocking on doors trying to persuade people who need government most that their candidate will help them if they help him.
I saw no need to tell these grassroots believers that I oppose their candidate.
I thought it more important to encourage their activism because we do, indeed, need young people to get involved in the political process if we ever hope to get true change we can believe in.
I would have given the same speech had the handful of volunteers been Republicans.
It’s important to do what you’re doing, I said. Community development is crucial, I said. Fighting to find and use your voice matters as much as anything, I said.
I told these young people about how hard I tried to get into the newspaper business because I knew I had something to say. I also told them that they must use their voice once they find it or critics will accuse them of not having anything to say in the first place.
Call “Corbett,” I said. “Use your voice.”
Some of them no doubt had no idea who I was or what we talked about on the air. Some of them might know me and dismiss me because I oppose their candidate.
But you take the platform where you find it.
I shook hands with Lackawanna County Commissioners Mike Washo and Corey O’Brien on the street yesterday as they rallied the Obama volunteers. Both men, who were the first local elected officials to endorse Obama’s candidacy, called “Corbett” yesterday afternoon and used the sacred platform of free speech to make their case.
Smart campaigners at even the highest levels of government know not to dismiss even the most local member of the press. Smart campaigners know they’ve hit pay dirt when the press invites them on the air or into print on a regular basis.
I’ve issued an open invitation. Street volunteers as well as the highest-ranking Obama surrogates are welcome to come on the show and make their best arguments. That happened during the primary campaign.
Even state Obama communications director Sean Smith acknowledges that he was treated fairly on the show. When we talked off the air yesterday, I invited him once again.
The campaign for the presidency is on.
If McCain is smart, he’ll show up at the corner of Vine and Prescott and seek out the small gas station owner on whose property the Obama volunteers gathered. McCain will tell him he has nothing to fear from moderate Republicans who know his fears and will stand with him in response to the rising oil prices.
Obama will do likewise.
Yesterday, Obama organizers didn’t even bother to say hello to the gas station owner.
That slight’s a mistake that could hurt their candidate.
Sue Henry
