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I had to jump from page 13 to here so I apologize if I'm repeating anything. I wanted to expand on julieb's post about people underestimating support for Obama in PA.
I live in south central PA where my county is overwhelmingly Republican. I just switched my registration to Democrat in time to vote in this primary. I, like many registered Reps in this county, are independent or liberal but have maintained my Rep. card so that I could have some influence in the primaries, hoping to vote the moderates in while keeping the crazy, religious types out (e.g. Toomey vs. Specter a few years ago). Pretty much the democratic primaries for local politics have always gone unchallenged so to have any say in local government, it made sense to be registered Rep here since independents can't vote in the primaries.
Anywho, I got to see Barack for one second today while he was campaigning at a local college. I didn't have a ticket, having found out too late about the event, but drove down at 10am hoping to get a glimpse of him outside. I was with a small group of about 10 who waited for 3 hours in the cold and rain to catch a one second glimpse of him leaving the building and getting on his bus, about 20 ft in front of us. He did wave and smile though, so I got to see that winning smile close up and in person making the wait worthwhile.
People with tickets arrived in the wee hours of the morning, while it was still dark, for a 10am event. Talking with the people who stood outside in the rain with me, I learned that towards the end of the last week to register for the primary, the county was receiving over 1000 registrations a day, mainly people switching from Rep to Dem.
Please understand these aren't people trying to sway the election. Any hardcore Rep in this town would never "sully" themselves even for a month with a Dem affiliation. They are all still unapologetically Bush supporters who believe he was placed in his position by god. I kid you not.
The party switchers are all people inspired by this Democratic primary. It is my opinion that Obama has more support than the media realizes. This county is 3% black yet thousands came out to see him today. These are all white voters he's attracting in a county previously around 75% Rep until a few weeks ago.
I just spoke to my mother tonight and was surprised to find out she's an Obama supporter. She was disappointed that I didn't get a button today (I had told her I only found out my small group was standing in the wrong area, on the other side were the vendors and a bigger ticketless crowd who he did briefly talk with before going inside) and her comment was "you should have gotten a button! Those are going to be worth something someday because he's going to be our first black president!"
Mind you, my mother is racist as they come when it involves her daughter dating a black man. So I was quite disappointed to hear that she didn't find the time to switch affiliations to vote in the primary since she's a regular voter who never misses an election.
So my catholic, PA bred, racist mother is an Obama supporter who already believes he's going to win in November. This is the demographic that others believe would not vote for him in PA. April 22 is going to be quite an interesting day indeed!
