I just got back from seeing Obama do one of his train-whistle stops in Paoli, Pennsylvania. It was a nice crowd and a pretty cool event. Here’s a slide show.
Obama has every region of the state covered today. Gov. Sebelius is in Pittsburgh and Erie. Gov. Kaine is in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. Sen. Kerry is in Allentown and Easton, and Teddy Kennedy is York and Gettysburg. Meanwhile, Obama hit three Main Line stops, plus Lancaster and Harrisburg.
Driving around Chester County, Obama signs outnumber Clinton signs seven or eight to one. In Wayne, there are kids on the main intersections waving Obama signs and cars honking their approval like mad. Hillary was here today, at a West Chester firehouse at 7:30 in the morning. She rocked a crowd of 600, which is about the size of the police and Secret Service contingent that protected Obama in Paoli (I’m exaggerating). It took her six weeks to make her first stop in Chester County.
She said she’s not out to fire people up with “whoop dee do speeches” but wants them thinking hard about the future.
That’s some inspiring shit. So’s this:
In West Lawn, Pa., supporters half-filled a high school gymnasium, with one set of empty bleachers stacked flush against the wall. The scoreboard suspended from the ceiling flashed the words “Hillary Wins.”
Obama delivered this line in Paoli, and probably the other stops as well.
“Her basic argument in this election — it’s become clear as time has gone on — is that you can’t really change Washington,” Mr. Obama said. “You can’t really change the say-anything-do anything, special-interest-driven game in Washington. And because you can’t change it, you might as well select somebody who knows how to play the game better because they’ve been at the game longer.”
It’s a brilliant piece of political theater.
The trip across a corner of Pennsylvania — designed for its marketing appeal, as much as its method of transportation — was the first use of a train in the 2008 race. As he boarded his chartered Amtrak at Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station, Mr. Obama took a pull on the train’s whistle. “This is what I’m talking about,” he said.
People waited for hours for Mr. Obama’s train to arrive. Young children, perched on their fathers’ shoulders, waved blue Obama signs into the air. People gathered on both sides of the tracks, their views occasionally interrupted by passing trains.
But amid the revelry, Mr. Obama reminded people again and again that he needed their support on Tuesday.
“We are going to be unified in November,” Mr. Obama said. “But right now, there is a real choice to be made.”
There is no sign of any life in Clinton’s campaign here anymore. In other parts of the state Obama is going to do poorly, but most of the votes are here. This is going to be a nail-biter.
