CAC's 1,234,482th Thread Telling You Pennsylvania is Turning Red

Today's edition of "Pennsylvania isn't a Republican cock-tease anymore", provided to you bythe Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

Without a collapsing economy to remind these voters why they're still Democrats, they will vote Republican. Indeed, a just-stagnant economy on a Democrat's watch doesn't help.

Six weeks ago, Obama visited Pittsburgh. The union crowd was thin. Enthusiasm was nonexistent; so were local elected Democrats, who opted to shake his hand at the airport rather than stand on stage with him while he talked about jobs.
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In off-year elections last month, Republicans increased Pennsylvania counties they control by 12, to 52 of 67. Most gains were in Northeastern or Western Pennsylvania, home to Scranton and Pittsburgh, respectively.

Heading north along state Route 51 into Allegheny County, a faded Hillary-for-president sign straddles a closed business and a yard. Duct tape appears to be still holding it in place.

If Obama is genuinely screwed in Western PA and northeastern Pennsylvania, he has no margin of error in the Philly burbs. Both Corbett and Toomey won Pennsylvania by winning a sizable portion of those too, combined with overwhelming numbers in the rest of the state. The old "Red T" of PA has become a "Red rectangle with a tiny zit and a fat lip", and that is devastating for any Democrat. The New York Times piles on about the President's collapse in Scranton:

Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate for October was 8.1 percent, lower than the national average of 9 percent. But here, in this old coal mining region, the rate was 9.7 percent; the Scranton area has the highest unemployment in the state. The city is on the verge of losing 300 postal service jobs. The regional food bank served a record number of meals on Thanksgiving and has had a 25 percent increase in demand over the last year.
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“People are afraid,” Mr. Doherty said. “I remember when Ronald Reagan was president, unemployment was high and interest rates were through the roof. But we always thought things were going to get better. Today, we don’t think things will get better.”

The President called the blue-collar Pennsylvania voters "bitter clingers" in 2008 and in the financial panic they still voted for him. With no economic improvement to be seen, the Presidents' numbers have grown worse and worse, dipping below those in Ohio, Colorado, and North Carolina, all traditionally more Republican states. Add in his problems in Michigan(where the President trails Romney by 5 and can only best Gingrich by the same), and the President is looking at a bad night in November, regardless what the "Swing West" does.

posted by CAC at 12:50 PM

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