The Thrilla for Vanilla

It's finally here...the long awaited Pennsylvania primary. And it will actually come down to the colored vote...what do I mean by that? I mean BLUE collared WHITE voters. Who woulda thunk...

Will it be the suburban upper middle-class, college-educated voter who gives Obama a surprisingly strong showing? Or will Hillary do another Bela Lugosi, returning from her lair like the famous undead vampire who always seems to have another way to survive.

The general consensus of polling data seems to be that she needs a high single-to-low double digit win to realistically keep this going beyond simply a "refusal to face reality" chance of being the nominee.

Not a lot has changed since the last post except perhaps some questions about John McCain, just so the media can say he didn't get a free pass. Today's shot was an article in the Washingon Post recycling some oft disproven anecdotal stories about McCain's "out of control" temper. If I had lived through what he experienced in a Vietnamese prison for almost 6 years, I would be unusual if I DIDN'T have a temper.

But when you are talking about someone who will have their finger on "the button", it's a fair question. There is, however, some concern about the integrity of the sourcing of the story. Why should that be unusual in this campaign? Every candidate seems to have suffered from that malady. McCain's manager answered the charges in an email to an editor at National Review (a friendly publication to be sure) and I suppose time will tell if others come forward to contradict or support the contention.

On the Democrat front, the barnstorming continues as if it were the last few weeks before the general election. Obama has outspent Hillary 5-1 in this state and it will be interesting to see if he gets a good return on this investment. Hillary is beginning to see some poll movement and we will soon see if the "bitter" statement hurt Obama in the Keystone state. I highly recommend the most serious political junkies read this excellent analysis of the poll numbers and compare them with Ohio's numbers right before that state's primary. This time, there was a huge change in registrations in Pennsylvania before the cutoff date. Were these Obamacans or participants in Rush Limbaugh's Operation Chaos?

Tuesday night should tell us a lot...