Bob Casey

SCRANTON, Pa.—For a while, the political rally that took place in here on Oct. 12 seemed to be happening in a parallel universe in which Hillary Clinton is running a general-election campaign.

Scranton, of course, is Clinton Country. Older white women constituted the majority of the crowd inside the Astroturf-carpeted sports complex, and many of them wore Hillary buttons on their shirts. Several of the men wore Hillary buttons on the suspenders they used to hold up their jeans. Bill delivered an address attesting to his wife’s wonderfulness. Vice presidential candidate Joe Biden spent the first portion of his speech talking about how close he was to Clinton.  read more »

PHILADELPHIA—In an effort to boost voter turnout in the all-important battleground state of Pennsylvania, Barack Obama held four separate rallies on the afternoon of Oct. 11 in which he sought to connect with largely black audiences on economic grounds.

At each event, Obama was introduced by Governor Ed Rendell, who plainly laid out the campaign’s mission to the crowd.

“Fifty-three percent this Election Day won’t cut it, right?” Rendell said during an event in Germantown, referring to the Democratic turnout of the Philadelphia area during the primary. “I want to see Philadelphia go over 70 percent.”

The day started early, in North Philadelphia's Progress Plaza, where Obama stood, in shirtsleeves, in a square surrounded by stores with signs like “Auto Tags,” or “Dollar World.  read more »

 

Barack Obama campaigned at a bowling alley in Pennsylvania this weekend with Senator Bob Casey, who also did not bowl well.

Democrats are now one-third of the way to claiming the Senate for the first time since 2001, with Sherrod Brown knocking off Mike DeWine in Ohio and Bob Casey, Jr. dethroning Pennsylvania'a Rick Santorum. Neither of these results are surprising -- Santorum has not led in a single public poll over the last 22 months, and national Republicans actually pulled resources out of DeWine's effort last month.

But the six-seat gain Democrats need to reclaim the majority is very much within sight right now. In New Jersey, Robert Menendez has held off Republican Tom Kean, preserving for the Democrats a seat that appeared to be in serious jeopardy last month, when news of a federal criminal probe of Menendez leaked from the U.S. Attorney's office.

All eyes are now on Virginia, Rhode Island, Missouri, Montana, Tennessee and Arizona. Win four of those, and Democrats have their majority-- assuming, of course, that they retain Maryland, where final results could take a few days.

-- Steve Kornacki