Scranton hangs tough for native daughter Clinton
The small Pennsylvania industrial town served as an unlikely battleground for the hard-working but struggling voters Obama needs and Clinton must keep.
SCRANTON, PA. — After six weeks of testy campaigning by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama for the affections of this working-class city that has seen better days, voters streamed to the polls Tuesday. And if people such as Simon Lipchus were any indication, the television ads, interminable robocalls, bad bowling and whiskey sipping didn't make a whole lot of difference.
Lipchus, the 64-year-old proprietor of Simon's Restaurant on Market Street, a little place with a screen door and great omelets, knew more than a year ago that he would vote for Clinton. It was personal: She's from here. No Obama miracle or Clinton mistake would budge him.
"When her dad passed away, we were down on Court Street at the Methodist church to see her at the funeral," said Lipchus from behind the counter, wearing, as was his entire staff, a Clinton T-shirt.
Once a thriving industrial town of silk mills and coal mines, Scranton has fallen on hard times. Its population, a little more than 70,000, is half of what it was after World War II. There are not enough jobs. Children grow up and leave. And at places like Simon's, it's bad news when the cost of eggs doubles and Lipchus can't raise his prices without losing customers.
But this small northeastern Pennsylvania city had its month in the media sun, thanks to a Democratic nominating contest that has lasted longer than anyone expected. Scranton served as the improbable battleground for the sort of voter Obama needs to win and Clinton needs to keep -- hard-working yet still struggling.
Both multimillionaire, Ivy League senators set out to channel their inner working stiffs, which was sometimes painful to watch. (Recall Obama's abysmal attempt at bowling and Clinton's regarding a shot of whiskey as though it were a glass of bugs.)
She mused about her grandfather toiling in a Scranton lace mill at age 11, and the happy summers she spent at the family cottage on nearby Lake Winola. He set one of his many ads here, won the endorsement of native son Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr., and ate pancakes at the landmark Glider Diner.
For their part, Scrantonites thoroughly enjoyed the attention. It was the first time in a generation anyone cared what they had to say in a presidential primary, and if things go the way many want, this morning they will pat themselves on the back for giving Clinton's campaign yet another reprieve.
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