Barackabout

Interesting NY Times piece on how Obama's town hall approach in the depressed areas of Pennsylvania are more about specifics and his start as a community organizer than his aspirational rhetoric:

So in Johnstown, a small, economically depressed city tucked in a valley hard by the Little Conemaugh River, Mr. Obama on Saturday spoke to the gritty reality of a city that ranks dead last on the Census Bureau’s list of places likely to attract American workers. His traveling companion, Senator Bob Casey, Democrat of Pennsylvania, introduced the candidate as an “underdog fighter for an underdog state.”

Mr. Obama, a quicksilver political student, picked up that cue. He often mentions his background as a community organizer but in passing, a parenthetical. Not this time. “I got into public service as an organizer,” Mr. Obama told these 1,200 mostly white Pennsylvanians in a local high school gymnasium. “There were a group of churches, mostly Catholic parishes, and they hired me for $12,000 plus car fare.”

That detail drew knowing chuckles in a town where the median income hovers at just over $20,000. “So I got myself believing that the most important thing is not to be an elected official but to hold them accountable.”

Sen. Bob Casey is the big endorsement here, a more taciturn guy with family roots in the working class electorate, going up against Gov. Ed Rendell's powerful machine for Clinton, but most importantly to Obi-Wan young Luke:

The candidate’s best weapon in this race just might be Senator Casey. Laconic to the core, a politician who dominates the working-class cities of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, he seems intent on refashioning his candidate — still very much a long shot in the primary. In his telling, Mr. Obama is nearly a shot-and-a-beer guy.

“We can’t just curse the darkness. We have to do our best to roll up our sleeves,” Mr. Casey said. “He’ll fight for your jobs, and your families’ jobs. Understand this: All of our battles are his battles.”

Mr. Obama stood and watched; he might as well have been taking notes.

Meanwhile his opponent, in her campaign's now expected mode of passive-aggressive racial semiotics, likens herself to Rocky Balboa (as in against that burly, black, hubristic Apollo Creed). Too bad -- Rocky may have earned his bloody dignity by the end, but he lost the fight. And rather less passive-aggressive, more aggressivo maximo, there's Harold Ickes pimping Reverend Wright to any superdelegate he can call:

In a reference to Wright's controversial views, Ickes continued: "Nobody thinks that Barack Obama harbors those thoughts. But that's not the issue. The issue is what Republicans [will do with them]...I think they're going to give him a very tough time."

Asked whether he was specifically bringing up Wright to super-delegates, Ickes said: "I've said what I've said...I tell people that they need to look at what they think Republicans may use against him. Wright comes up in the conversations."

The argument is that the campaign isn't racist, just truthful, built around Sen. Clinton's heartfelt conviction that America will not elect a black nominee President, not this time.



Meanwhile, Americans now agree that Obama makes the much more electable candidate against McCain:

Democrats were asked whether Clinton or Obama has the better chance of defeating McCain in November: 59% say Obama does; 30% say Clinton. Republicans were asked whether McCain has a better chance of defeating Clinton or Obama on Election Day. Sixty-four percent say McCain has a better chance of beating Clinton, compared with only 22% choosing Obama, meaning Republicans view Obama as the more formidable candidate.

Oh, and it looks like he raised at least $1 millon/day throughout the entire month of March.

Who would you trust with your economy?