Your PA Primary Reader

Missed out on last night's US election action? Here's an initial reader to bring you up to speed.

• Gerard Baker in Times Online: Oh no! Groundhog day...again
• Tom Bevan in Real Clear Politics: Pennsylvania Primary
• John Dickerson in Slate: She's got a friend in Pennsylvania
• Andrew Romano in Newsweek: And now, story time
• Andrew Sullivan in The Daily Dish: The worst of all worlds for the Dems

Comments

[Candadai Tirumalai]

Having lived in that state for 20 years (both in Philadelphia, where Obama won convincingly, and in the semi-rural hinterland, where Hillary won equally convincingly), I followed the Pennsylvania primary with particular interest. It confirmed electoral patterns observers have noted before: the white working-class and older voters decidedly prefer Hillary, African Americans and the more affluent and college-educated much prefer Obama. It is striking that Pittsburgh, the second city after Philadelphia, where Carnegie and other industrial tycoons once held sway and where manufacturing jobs are now far from plentiful, went Hillary's way.
Her advocates do have a point in arguing that the big states have doubts about Obama and that she is better suited to take on John McCain in the general election. The 10% margin by which she won the Keystone State may not be overwhelming but it is impressive. The heat will be on the superdelegates now because while Obama's lead among pledged delegates and probably in the popular vote as well cannot be overcome, Hillary's string of victories in the big states after Super Tuesday is giving a lot of people second thoughts. The next major swing state is Indiana, in May.