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Jamie Dupree

Hillary Clinton Goes "Small Town"

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Jamie Dupree
@ April 21, 2008 12:00 AM
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As I drove 434 miles on Sunday through Pennsylvania, tracking Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, there was once more no real sign of where this Democratic race was going.

Some things were apparent to the ears, not the eyes.

The most obvious change for Hillary Clinton came as her Pennsylvania events ended, and the speakers started blaring John Cougar Mellencamp's "Small Town."

There was no Katie Tunstall singing "Suddenly I See," which had been a staple of her events that I attended in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Texas.

But after the "Bitter Battle" of the past week over the political allegiances of small town Americans, it only makes sense that someone would be using the 1985 Mellencamp song, which extols the virtues of small town America.

Well, I was born in a small town
And I live in a small town
Prob'ly die in a small town
Oh, those small communities

Bitter-Gate is really over now, but the problem for Barack Obama is that it took him about a week to get past those comments made to a San Francisco fundraising event. The daily Gallup tracking poll showed that he lost as many as twelve points before bouncing back a few over the weekend.

Does that translate to Pennsylvania? Hillary Clinton sure hopes so.

I caught up with her last night at Penn State University, where of course she was late - 45 minutes at this point. (And the college crowd is beginning to heckle the poor woman who is trying hard to keep the crowd entertained. My advice - play music.)

As Obama called out Hillary by name a number of times on Sunday, Clinton jabbed back, especially going after Obama on the subject of John McCain.

At the rally in Reading where I saw Obama, he said that all three candidates would be better than George W. Bush in the White House.

Clinton obviously felt like that gave her an opening, as she zapped Obama.

"We need a nominee who will take on John McCain, not cheer John McCain," Clinton said to big cheers at Penn State's Rec Hall.

Hillary's rally was not big by any means, as only one side of the stadium was filled up. I will be nice and say that 2,500 people were here.

Obama drew over 20,000 at an outdoor rally here earlier this month.

And to make you chuckle even more, Bill Clinton attracted over 6,000 in recent weeks as well.

But that's been the story in many states. Hillary is badly outspent and she draws small crowds. And then she goes and wins. We'll see if it's a repeat of Ohio on Tuesday.

One note - Clinton will hold her Election Night rally in Philadelphia, but the word on the street is that Obama won't be in Pennsylvania on primary night...going instead to Indiana or North Carolina (the former is what I heard.)

Those two states of course vote on May 6th, two weeks from tomorrow.










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