PA primary wrapup

Hillary Clinton won PA last night by 10 points, a significant margin. A look at map of where she won was as revealing as anything about the broad nature of her support that has played out time and time again.

Two things that have come out of this primary that deserve comment. First, I’ve read the argument that Clinton won because PA is racist. That particular argument just boggles the mind. Yes, there are racists in PA, just as there are racists everywhere. But to blame the entire loss on racism is quite a stretch. After all, if whites had voted for Clinton in the same percentages as blacks voted for Obama (some put that number at 90% or better), Clinton’s victory would have been much, much larger, especially since more than 80% of the voters are white. So let’s just put that one to rest.

Another issue goes back to a question I raised a long time ago about Republicans voting in Democratic primaries. The argument was that Republicans were crossing over to vote for Hillary because she was the candidate that they wanted to face in the fall. I thought it was BS then and I certainly think it’s BS now. According to the AP:

The contest was open only to registered Democrats. About half the party-switchers had been registered Republicans, while the rest had been unaffiliated with either party, and even more were voting for the first time in Pennsylvania.

Most of those new Democrats were mobilized to come out for Obama, and they were nearly one-fifth of Obama’s supporters. Even the former Republicans favored Obama over Clinton

There goes that idea, so can we put it to bed now?

Finally, there’s this scary bit from one exit poll:10% of the voters said that they would be voting for McCain in the fall. Of that 10%, of those who supported Obama, 70% said that they would be voting for McCain. If that is even remotely true, we’ve got a problem here, folks.

(edited for clarity)