politico: Michael Ventura, 57, a retired sheriff leaning toward Clinton because of her husband’s oratorical skills, said an Obama event Friday in Greensburg gave him the chance “to see him in person and see the facial expressions, to look at him.”
Obama faces a tough climb in some parts of the state, Ventura said.
“You get down by Appalachia, near Ohio, you have a little bit of discrimination,” Ventura said. “Even out this way, as you go out further, you get discrimination.”
During the speech, Ventura laughed and applauded at all the right lines.
“He is running on all eight cylinders,” Ventura said after the event. “You want someone who comes down to your level. Right through the speech, he is almost one-on-one. He is an excellent speaker — that is why I love [Bill] Clinton.”
one, i find it hard to fathom that people are still so narrow minded that they wouldn't vote for someone based on their color. it would be nice if there was a way to go in there and educate them, but it's a culture, a way of life. it's like the united states thinking it can go in and bomb iraq and change its culture. it just doesn't work like that. it is ingrained and is passed on from generation to generation. the so-called lunchbox workers are probably victims of our lame education system, among other things.
two, they're not voting for hillary. they're voting for bill. nearly every time they're interviewed, these lunchbox workers say they like bill. they are more apt to vote for a woman than a black man, but these men don't want to see hillary as president. they want bill clinton and it's all a wink and a nod. they understand they're getting bill.
three, they don't realize they're being pandered to. bill clinton is out there in west virginia and pennsylvania talking like an idiot.
four, ironically, obama is the candidate who understands their resentments and their prejudices. while their line of thinking deeply disturbs some of us, obama knows where they're coming from and wants to help them. further, they need obama.
five, their kind of thinking doesn't belong in the world.
the following is from the owner of the pittsburgh review-tribune talking about his recent meeting with hillary clinton. he's trying to decide who to endorse and it strikes me that it doesn't really matter what he thinks or who his newspaper endorses.
On domestic policy, Sen. Clinton and I might find more areas on which we disagree. Yet we also agree on others. Asked about the utter failure of federal efforts to rebuild New Orleans since the Katrina disaster, for example, she called it just what it has been -- "not just a national disgrace (but) an international embarrassment."
Does all this mean I'm ready to come out and recommend that our Democrat readers choose Sen. Clinton in Pennsylvania's April 22 primary?
No -- not yet, anyway. In fairness, we at the Trib want to hear Sen. Barack Obama's answers to some of the same questions and to others before we make that decision.
But it does mean that I have a very different impression of Hillary Clinton today than before last Tuesday's meeting -- and it's a very favorable one indeed.
Call it a "counterintuitive" impression.
Richard M. Scaife is the owner of the Tribune-Review.
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