Closing the Deal

Member Group : Salena Zito

The narrative of this historic presidential election has come down to
which candidate will close the deal and win the trust of Pennsylvania
voters.

From the outside looking in, Pennsylvania has become a metaphor for all
that is wrong with our country when it comes to race — especially those
of its Democrats who are soft on or wary of Barack Obama.

Yet on the inside, Pennsylvania is far from its broad-brush portrayal as
racist. It is not the color of the candidate; it is the culture he
represents.

Say what you will, Obama’s "spread the wealth" tongue-slip hit home
here.

Most Pennsylvania Democrats who live outside of Philadelphia are very
Midwestern in their values and their votes.

If they lose their jobs, they go out and get two more to make up for the
loss. They do not take handouts and they don’t whine; they provide for
themselves and their families.

What are these people made of? I can remember listening as a child to my
union-Democrat immigrant grandparents saying they never took "relief"
during the Great Depression — and they were raising five children, had
no education beyond the fourth grade and spoke broken English.
Their voting patterns and other traditions passed along to their sons
and daughter will help to decide this election.

"Pennsylvania is America," says former Democratic Party executive Mark
Siegel. "To understand the voters there is to understand this country."
For weeks, opinion polls have suggested that Obama will clobber John
McCain here. McCain stunned Democrats and Republicans alike by deciding
to fight it out in Pennsylvania when Obama was clearly ahead in every
poll by double digits.

"This race is still not a slam-dunk for Barack Obama," says Pennsylvania
Democrat Mark Singel, a former lieutenant governor and acting governor.
Pennsylvania voters move pretty dramatically in the very last days of
the campaign, he says.

Kent Gates, a Republican strategist, says the Pennsylvanians who will
decide the state race and possibly the presidential election "are not
the people who vote early or place bumper stickers on cars and signs in
yards."

"They don’t attend rallies and scream or chant. They will just quietly
vote and decide the presidency without the impact of the national media
or experts."

Gates is referring to Democrats.

"In an odd way, many liberals are tone-deaf about normal people, who
worship God, country, sports and their communities and don’t care all
that much about politics," says former Villanova political scientist Bob
Maranto.

Maranto says what’s causing Pennsylvania voters to give Obama a second
look goes beyond Obama’s "share the wealth" notion: "They are suspicious
of him and his Ivy League buddies who have never run anything in their
lives (but) that now want to run the country."

He adds that "it is all in the arrogance."

Liberal Democrats often have a hard time in this state because they
don’t understand why voters in poor, rural areas don’t "vote their
pocketbooks." Frankly, these are not very materialistic people; if you
live in Johnstown or in Elk County and you care that much about money,
then you will leave for better opportunities in the big city.
People who stay behind don’t care as much about money as they care about
their families or communities.

To ambitious politicians such as Obama or running mate Joe Biden, that’s
just crazy; they can’t imagine folks who care more about family or
community than about getting ahead.

Oh, this doesn’t mean that people in places like Elk County or Centre
County aren’t ambitious — they are. But rather than focus on material
needs, they focus on being better parents or better hunters, better
Christians, better whatevers. It’s a different, more laid-back life.
Much the same can be said for the Pittsburgh region, where many people
live within a few miles of where they grew up.

Who will close the deal in Pennsylvania? The polls say Obama; the
pundits, too.

Let’s see what the voters say.