Okay so after 7 full weeks of nothing, empty stories, no new state results, unpredictable fluctuating polls, minor gaffs, race speeches, a Seinfeldian debate about nothing, Bosnia gangster rap tall tales, McCain coasting and media mayhem, I think we're probably closer to where we started coming into Pennsylvania in the after math of Ohio & Texas primaries than we would have thought we would be at this time. Rounding into the Keystone state polls pointed to a landslide in favor of Clinton in PA and impending doom to the tune of anywhere between 15-25 points for Obama depending on which poll you lent credence. Now after all the debris and smoke clears from the scorched Earth the last several weeks provided us, contrary to differing campaigns' expectations for their opponent, I really don't think PA will have changed dramatically enough to set a new narrative
either in terms of Hillary gaining a new momentum that changes the ebb and flow of this primary in any substantive way that makes her case any stronger coming out of this state and I don't see Obama taking the state in any game clinching manner that proves he's capable of stealing a game on Hillary's home court that would almost assuredly put this thing away for him. I think however, the single most important, lastong thing to come out of this entire lead up is Obama's speech on race. That's the only thing that will stand as a significant marker for history's sake in the run up to the vote on the 22nd and in the larger context of the story of this nation's search for it's 44th president. Now in all candor, there were some who saw/heard the speech that weren't going to be swayed either way by it or it's honesty no matter what he said in it that were staunch Republicans or likely Hillary voters. As a whole the biggest group of people who were moved by it were Obama voters, or people who were inclined to hear him out and didn't have it out for him to begin with. I think though on the margins there actually was probably a group of people who belonged to neither of those two groups who probably did come out of that speech in Philadelphia who weren't in his corner and were ultimately impressed by him to the point where the veil that stood in front of their faces and prevented them from giving him a look was removed and probably became fans of his in the process but again I'll reiterate this was on the margins and by and large not the overriding case he needed it to be to have any hopes of snatching up PA from the grip of Hillary. That said, I think you can assume he made some headway in an uphill fight to begin with, but there just wasn't enough time or real opportunity to affect this thing in one major way to tilt the state in his favor. The polls say on average that Hillary leads by 6 coming into this weekend and I believe you can probably tack on an extra 2% given the overwhelmingly white population in much of the state. I'm not saying whites are inherently racist against Barack, it's just that well, they represent 74% of the country and I think that matters. It gives them a 
certain comfort in looking to various aspects of life and civilization and seeing familiarity. That number implies that a white person walks into any room and can expect to see 7-8 people that look like them. Why wouldn't they on a conscious or subconscious level vote that way? It's probably more human nature than anything.Obama did well, spoke circles around Hillary, kissed countless babies, embraced many older white women and outspent Hillary 5-1 in the state on commercials and advertising but in the end, we here at HAWO will project Hillary wins this by 8%. That's our story and we're sticking to it.
Next up: Indiana
