For more than six long weeks now, Pennsylvania has been the make-or-break state for Hillary Clinton’s campaign to become your next president.
Tuesday night’s nearly double digit victory shows that those ready to hand Barack Obama the donkey crown underestimate the Clintons’ formidable knack for campaigning at their own peril.
Sure, she already represents nearby New York.
Yes, she grew up spending summers with family members in Scranton.
Okay, a state filled with blue collar workers and the elderly is prime Clinton real estate.
Still, an Obama victory or even a narrow Clinton win would have raised the call for her to give up the quest for the sake of party unity.
The Obama camp knew that and spent an ungodly amount of money in an attempt to create just such a scenario, a PA knockout punch that would rest the war chest and turn the guns squarely on John McCain.
Instead, ladies and gentlemen, what we have here is a horse race at the far turn, and a close one at that.
What the Clintons did in Pennsylvania was spend wisely and campaign relentlessly.
Despite the fact that northwest Pennsylvania was a stronghold for Bill Clinton in the 90’s, he still came to the Erie area twice. Daughter Chelsea also appeared here twice and Hillary came once in the final weeks of the campaign.
Bill Clinton also worked tirelessly in towns like Warren and Meadville and Saint Mary’s, shrewdly understanding that a vote-is-a-vote-is-a-vote no matter where it lives and that visits to small towns came make big splashes with those not considered to be on the beaten path.
Hillary Clinton’s win not only keeps her campaign alive, it also keeps alive that gnawing doubt in the pit of the super delegate stomach that Obama does well among the young and the educated but can’t win must have lunch pail states like Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Insiders say they still doubt that the fight will carry all the way to the floor of the convention and will probably be decided by June at the latest.
But the Clinton victory in Pennsylvania reaffirms one other belief, the one made famous by Yogi Berra:
It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.