I came away from that experience with a new conviction that Hillary will be the next president of the United States.  People in Scranton and surrounding communities have a strong affinity for getting to the bottom line and the bottom line is that the country needs the best, hardest working most experienced president we can get.  McCain is a hero to these people as he should be.  But we all know that his best days, his fighting days were 40 years ago.  Obama's best days might be ahead if he can control his sense of entitlement and anger at not being crowned King.  But he is not there yet.  He needs more time to grow.  We need to know what and who he will grow in to before we hire him for the most serious job in the world.

This election is not about our anger at the DLC or some weird vague feeling that Clinton is more corporate or less trustworthy.  It certainly is not about joining the crowd at dkos, mydd, america blog or any place else where ranting and winning is sometimes, for some people, more important than vetting the candidates.

Clinton is now.  She is ready and she is the hardest working and most clearly informed candidate running.  While standing there talking to people I told them the story of how Ari Fleisher (I think it was him) said on the 2000 campaign trail "do you really want your president to be the smartest guy in the room?" Everyone around me said "of course we do".  

We want the smartest person in the room to be our president, now even more than ever.  That is Hillary Clinton as far as most democrats are concerned, here and in other towns like ours.  She is seen as the smartest, the toughest and the hardest working.  You can't beat that rep even though Obama has tried awfully hard to make all of those things look bad.  Experience, GOD FORBID.

 Ultimately people are going to remember what is important.  The people of NE Pennsylvania never forget what is important to them.  They are a pragmatic people and that is why Clinton will win this area by huge margins.

But this time they have even more reason to go for the best candidate.  They remember that Hillary is from here and if you are from here and you have made good, you are good as gold. Hillary is as good as gold.  She works hard.  Boy is that an important character trait here, you have no idea.  

I am not native to this region; I grew up in Rotterdam NY. My early years were spent in Owego (near Binghamton) and my family is from the central NY farm country, Morrisville NY to be exact.  But a few years ago I found out that we had ties to this area all the way back to revolutionary days when my ancestors were among the first to settle the valley and fought in the battle of Wyoming.  

In the years that I have lived here I have grown to realize that saying "Joe is a hard worker" is about the greatest compliment you can pay Joe, or better yet, Joe's parents.  So my mother in law would tell me about someone, some son of her friend or daughter of a co-worker and she would ALWAYS, every single time, say "he/she is a really hard worker".  I am convinced that the people of Scranton would rather work for free than not work at all.   The people who have been here for generations are proud of each other and what they have built.  They don't forget that this is the electric city or that their forefathers and mothers worked in the coal mines or the textile mills and garment factories that built this area.  

So when we finally got in to the gym and sat down the signs you saw reflected all of these things.  There were plenty of signs welcoming Hillary home.  That was the sweetest thing.  And Hillary did not disappoint.  She talked about local land marks and restaurants she ate at as a child.  She talked about the place where her grandfather worked and the local lake where they still have property.  Here is part of a New York Times article

Mayor Doherty is among those fired up by the possibility of having a president who "knows the difference between Bulls Head and Weston Field," he said. "And the Rodhams embrace Scranton. It's part of who they are."
He added: "People here, we don't live by home runs, we live by singles. And we take it day to day. We watch our pocketbook. We care about small-town things." He said people know each other going back three generations; Mr. Corbett said they are bound by "tribalism."
Mrs. Clinton's great-grandparents came to Scranton in the 1880s in steerage from Wales. Her grandfather, Hugh S. Rodham, began work as a boy at the Scranton Lace Company, once the world's largest producer of Nottingham lace, now a shuttered hulking behemoth, on track to be redeveloped as an arts space and apartments. Mr. Rodham and his wife, Hannah, raised three boys here, including Hillary's father, Hugh E. Rodham, who went to Penn State University, where he played football (and made bathtub gin, according to his daughter).

I sat up behind the local press platform and I could see fine.  The crowd was mixed.  There were more women than men and most of the men were middle aged or older, though there were plenty of young men there too. There were a LOT of young women there, many of them mothers with small children.  The crowd was full of teachers.  In fact the biggest applause was given to two statements by Hillary, one was about what a disaster NCLB, she said that we should not be turning our children in to "little test takers" and the teachers were on their feet.  The other hit line was about making education affordable.  She talked quit a bit about student loan companies etc...The teachers and everyone else cheered.
People here love their kids and they want them to succeed just like parents everywhere.  But when you are from here you don't want to leave here.  We are a tribal people.  So Hillary's ideas about making this a place where your children can stay and have a good future hit home powerfully with this crowd.

When Hillary talked about taking care of veterans I looked around to see how some of the men were reacting, and sure enough, that touched them.  We have a strong tradition of service to that nation and our vets are proud.  But they want and deserve to be respected and given a fair shake.  They need benefits and support and they were happy that Hillary remembered them and was speaking for them and to them.  I spoke to a man leaving and he let me know that he had come wondering what Clinton would say about the war and vets and he was very happy with her and would be voting for her.  I didn't ask him but I don't think he cares about her vote for the IWR.  I'd lay money on the fact that he just cares what she will do now and believes that she means what she says when she talks about veterans health care.

What first attracted me to Clinton is that even when I do not agree with her I believe that she means what she says. I wanted to go yesterday to see her to see if that impression was as strong in person as it is on TV.  The answer, I am happy to tell you, is yes she is authentic.  I believed her and so did everyone else I talked to.  That is a big deal here as it is in many other parts of the country.

The crowd was very responsive to Rendell who was also there. Just for fun get to know Rendell, he is a power player.  People love him around here.  Hell, I have been mad at him many times over the years and I love him.  He's a damn good governor and I wish we could elect him again. He and Clinton have both stressed Green jobs and industry.  When she talked about this idea people were very receptive.  If you have never been here to North East PA, come visit.  It is one of the most beautiful places in the country.  Green jobs and industry sound perfect to us.  We need the good jobs and we welcome the new ideas.  The idea that green industry might come here, an idea that Rendell has talked about often, had people around me buzzing with excitement.  A man sitting near me said that he and his wife would like to contribute more to controlling global warming but that the products and construction supplies/green builders that they needed to do so were not readily available.
I am convinced that is someone opened a Green "home depot" type business in this area they would clean up.   We just need to convince local contractors to stop building those butt ugly McMansions and start building green homes instead.

As the rally was ending Hillary shook some hands and signed some books, signs etc...  I couldn't get close.  But I am determined to try again on Saturday when she comes back for our St Patrick Day parade.
By the way if you are close, come here to Scranton and join her.  We have the third largest St Pats parade in the country.  Yup, the list is:

NYC
Boston
Scranton PA.

Here is another funny thing that happened.  Hillary was talking about her father going to Penn State (cheer) and playing football there on a scholarship (cheer) when someone yelled out "was Joe there".  Joe is Joe Paterno of course.  Every one laughed and Hillary made some remark about him that I could not hear because at that point people were laughing and calling out to her.  She handled it like a pro and got the second laugh.  

She is great at comedy.   Comedy is hard, drama is easy.  I want a president who is good at comedy. I want a president who plays poker and as my ex says she has a great poker face.  I want a president who knows what the job entails and can take it on. I want a president who tells us stuff even when we don't like it, not one who tells us what we want to hear and then tells other countries it was "just campaign rhetoric".

I want a candidate I can trust to be who she says she is.  Yup, that is Hillary Clinton.  It certainly is not Obama. I don't care how well he reads Deval's old speeches off the teleprompter.