If he didn’t, his national press secretary Bill Burton would never have come on my show yesterday and agreed with me.
But he did.
Yes, indeed, Burton said, you’re right.
Northeastern Pennsylvania matters as much as anywhere when it comes to choosing the next president.
Like I’ve been saying all year – “If you come through here, you come through us.”
And the road to the White House comes through here. Coalcrackers will decide the next president. Mostly I’m talking about blue collar, white working-class people who are mostly Democrats and independents.
Burton even uttered the dreaded word “white” when we spoke on “Corbett” yesterday afternoon about how Obama plans to win Hillary Rodham Clinton country, where the roots of her father’s side of the family run as deep as the deepest anthracite vein.
Although many Obama supporters downplay race in this race, top-level campaign staff understand that the great divide exists.
Burton didn’t disagree when I explained that many voters still remember when Obama spoke abut Pennsylvania voters as “clinging” to guns and religion and carrying an aversion to people who look different than they do.
Obama meant white people.
Obama meant us.
Now Obama needs us.
In fact, he needs us more than we need him.
That’s troublesome for him and his wisest supporters who know that Obama must now woo more than a few gunslingers and Bible thumpers not to mention the hardcore Hillary holdouts upon whom his success so much depends.
Speaking of religion, Burton said that the campaign is putting great faith in Scranton’s Irish-American Catholic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey to help bring us to Obama’s side.
That’s going to be difficult.
Casey is better known and respected within the upper class circles in which he feels most comfortable. Casey is not a man of the street. Casey is what the working-class descendants of immigrant Irish coal miners call “lace curtain,” a man more used to luxury than a man who’s truly committed to hard coal culture.
And many Catholics simply no longer trust anti-abortion Casey since he’s hooked up with abortion rights Obama.
Some of them even believe that the local bishop should refuse to give Casey the Catholic sacrament of communion. That’s a drastic suggestion but one that other men of the cloth have carried out elsewhere.
Obama will lose those voters to anti-abortion Republican John McCain.
Obama will also lose some Hillary holdouts, including me, who simply do not want him as president and want to send a message to Democratic bosses. We will not march in lockstep to the polls and want Hillary to run again for the White House in 2012.
Not only did Casey fail to deliver Northeastern Pennsylvania during the primary, he couldn’t even deliver his hometown.
Obama got hammered in hard coal country.
McCain is gearing up for a march through the region, though, and needs to understand that the more time he and his surrogates spend here, the better his chance of becoming president.
It’s as simple as that.
Burton’s appearance yesterday told me that Obama’s camp is taking the campaign here seriously. They know I oppose his candidacy but they also know that I offer a platform to all.
Senior Obama energy advisor Elgin Holstein called the show as soon as Burton hung up. He’s got his own family roots in hard coal country, he said, and sees coal as part of the Obama energy plan.
I’m not sure that anybody other than Mexicans would want to head into the mines, but floating a pro-coal idea in this region is smart. I first asked about coal, but Holstein was ready with an answer.
This region is up for grabs.
It’s time for McCain and Obama to shake hands and come out mining.
Sue Henry
