conventional wisdom in the state still dictates that hillary must win pennsylvania by ten percentage points.  this fact explain why the state democratic party is acting unethically -- ok, ok, it's for clinton, so it depends on what the meaning of "is" is -- perhaps even "crossing the line" that "state party resources might be going toward helping Hillary win."  i often think of those democrats who say hoorah, it's a good thing that the clintons will do anything to win.  they seem to think that acting like republicans is somehow an advantage.  yet those are the same people who want to blame florida voters for bush's election and are eager to ignore or deny that the clinton's decision to divide and paralyze the florida democratic party -- the key to buddy mckay's loss in 1998 -- had any detrimental effect on presidential politics.  i suppose losing another big state to republicans for a decade or two is acceptable, given the cult of personality that we've built around the clintons.  it's not just that the obama campaign is above this kind of gutter politics, it's exactly what we want to change.  that's the politics of the past; barack represents the politics of the future.

back in wynnewood, tuesday started with the phones ringing off the hook.  "have any tickets?" people wondered.  it's become the replacement for, "do you have any yard signs?"  more to the point, though, is that the office was packed with volunteers tuesday morning, including one lady who is vehemently anti-abortion etc and changed her registration from republican to democrat because, basically, she has a crush on barack.  unlike the republicans supporting hillary because of rush limbaugh's desire to wreck havoc in the democratic party, this woman is eager to help -- even if what she says can make many of us cringe.  it's a dilemma.

one of our office volunteers said that this former republican cried when she was given a ticket to the michelle event.  she had already been to the caroline kennedy event (which wasn't ticketed), and that was when we were first introduced to this avid barack supporter.  she thought it was so important that people attend the carolyn kennedy event that she came into the office to offer people rides from our office to st. joes.  i suppose that people with hundreds of millions of dollars truly are out of touch with reality, as she seemed to think that the rest of the folks in montgomery county didn't have cars.  or maybe she imagined she was the only white person supporting barack.  i don't know.  i suspect her heart is in the right place, she's just, well, like hillary.  far removed from people's daily lives.

slowly but surely, the office got less and less crowded, until noon, when it basically emptied out.  first went the advance person.  then went laura and hannah.  then hy and bill.  then the volunteers started to filter out.  in the end, we left only two out-of-state volunteers, both whom felt that they came to pennsylvania to work towards barack's elections and not go to special events.  of course, the two are not mutually exclusive, but we all understand their point.  despite the event, we still had people come into the office throughout the day, either to volunteer or to sign up to volunteer.

one of the ongoing questions we hear is whether this building will continue to be barack's headquarters into the fall.  it's convenient for many, since lancaster is a main drag (hillary's office, in contrast, is very convenient if you live in ardmore; otherwise, it's not easy to see or find).  but the bank building is actually for sale, and we've had prospective buyers come in to look at it.  so my answer is invariably, "not unless the campaign buys the building," which no one thinks is a good idea.  but it it interesting to me that pennsylvanians understand their importance in the general election and montco democrats (not the local democratic party, but democrats -- the people) understand how crucial the county and this area is to winning pennsylvania in the fall.  mostly, though, local democrats supporting barack want some assurance that the campaign will continue to be active.  they didn't necessarily see or understand the local grassroots support that had self-organized before the campaign staff showed up and the office was opened.  it's all a learning process.

haverford college itself is set back off of lancaster (the main road in the mainline) in a spacious, "leafy" campus.  strangely, it is not populated with all rich kids, as some in the media have inferred (although i'm sure it is expensive).  interestingly -- before i saw the reports that basically called the haverford student body elitism -- i ran into a young man who works at the cafe at haverford.  "i have to find someone to sub for me because i'm singing for michelle," he told me.  geez, i said.  will anyone be here while michelle is speaking?  it seemed like an odd demand, but it also demonstrated the lengths that smart young people will go to to get a good education.  i was glad to see him when they started singing the national anthem.  he seemed pretty desperate to find a replacement -- "this is why i'm here," he said, meaning the singing, not working behind a counter.

people started lining up a couple of hours before the event.  since they seated people first come, first serve, it was easy to understand why.  volunteers started working the line to sign anybody who was in line to volunteer, if they hadn't already done so.  everything was very well organized and went relatively smoothly.  at the appointed hour, people started pouring into the field house where the event was being held.

the first person to speak was hy, the local field organizer.  hy's job was to point out that we had volunteers with volunteer sign-up sheets, just in case they had missed the volunteers outside or the two volunteer tables that were set up as you walked into the field house.  we had given people the opportunity to volunteer, but hy was supposed to pushed those who had passed them by to re-think their decision.  "we need you," hy declared.  "this is how we will win pennsylvania."  almost every time i've heard hy's rap, he mentions that "my job is to organize myself out of a job," emphasizing the self-organization nature of the obama campaign -- and how it will continue to build even after the primary is over.  that is the purpose.  even though the democratic primary has been reduced to a bitterly divisive, increasingly shrill contest (at least on one side), the whole point of this exercise is to elect barack president.  and we do that by building up a formidible political infrastructure that is independent and more grassroots than the local democratic party which has proven to be rather elitist and structured hierarchically.

the head of the college's students for obama group was charged with welcoming people to the college and introducing michelle obama, "the next First Lady of the United States."  several people in the crowd mentioned how impressed they were with her, how composed she was, imagining that she must have also been the student body president or something like that.  but people associated with the college (who knew who was in the audience right next to you?) thought that this was her first involvement -- which made her presentation all the more impressive.  

michelle entered the hall, stepped onto the stage and immediately noticed this darling little baby in the vip section.  "oh, she's cute," michelle said of the little girl that is contrasted against michelle later on in her speech.  she was completely taken by the little girl and seemed a little flustered.  but if she was, it sure didn't stop her from launching into an amazing speech.  michelle mocked hillary's assertion that barack was out of touch with the values of regular americans.  in a friendly, positive manner, michelle took all the clinton's recent accusations head on, dismissing them with fact and logic.  barack's upbringing in rural kansas, the black son of an 18 year old single mother contrasts significantly with hillary's upbringing in upper class park ridge, a bastion of right-wing elitism.

i spent most of the speech getting pictures.  i took over 300 pics just of the event, so i didn't really get the opportunity to listen to her speech with my full attention.  regardless, michelle seemed more comfortable than she has in the past.  when someone yelled out, "we love barack," michelle came back with, "me, too."  without skipping a beat, she said that "we shipped them in," and "i'm taking you on the road with me."  michelle has definitely accepted that she will be sharing her husband and her life with the rest of america for the next eight years.

appropriately, no one will be calling her a "cxxx" or "trollop" -- and especially not her husband.  comparisons to jackie kennedy may be just emerging, but the point is valid.  michelle gives off more than just class and grace, she promises a return to competence as well as the lifting up of strong women to a higher standard.  she is raising the bar for acceptance in america of strong women who struggle to have successful careers while juggling the demands of raising a family, as well as the issues raised by doing so.  no need to be bitter or get nasty, michelle did it with class and grace -- just like jackie kennedy.  camelot awaits.

michelle wove the clintons' repeatedly changing the standards, re-writing the rules and raising the bar into her speech while mocking hillary's assertion that barack was elitist.  (one ought to compare kenilworth on the southside with chappaqua sometime.)  appropriately, michelle said that "when power is confronted with real change, the will say anything."  now hillary already had that reputation, even before barack was viewed as a threat to hillary's struggle for power.  but michelle connected not only barack's life but his policy proposals to the lives of everyday americans who struggle to make ends meet.  "the only reason we paid off all our student loans," michelle observed, "is because barack wrote two best-selling books."  try to sell that to your accountant as your economic security plan, she warned.

her speech lasted longer than i expected.  one of our young volunteers mentioned that she had to go at 4:10.  michelle started pretty much around 3:30 and finished right around 4:10.  but when michelle was done, she came down to shake hands and spent a considerable amount of time doing so.  by the time i looked at the clock again, it was 5pm.  she had probably shaken over two hundred hands!  the rather large gentleman (probably a local politician) who had talked himself into the second row and then hurled himself toward the rope line didn't really need to do so, as michelle spent a considerable amount of time shaking hands and talking to people.  it was simply amazing.

one of our volunteers who shook michelle's hand commented on how warmly she did so.  "she took my hand into both her hands and looked me straight in the eyes," she observed.  then the volunteer -- tongue-tied, according to her husband -- said to michelle, "you were unbelievable."  michelle was just gorgeous, she observed.

indeed.

the race in pennsylvania is tightening considerably.  we are told by local folks, who don't necessarily know, that the polls show pittsburgh and philadelphia to be mirror images of each other.  i don't (personally) see how barack can possibly win pennsylvania without winning pittsburgh.  philly, alleghany (pittsburgh), montgomery, delaware and bucks counties all seem like must win to me if we are to counter the vote out of "alabama," as james carville calls "the t."  you can still help barack win.  donate here to reunite the democratic party behind a strong nominee who can beat mccain; you can help barack win in pennsylvania and across the country by making phone calls now.  with the pennsylvania democratic party intervening in the democratic process, anything you can do to obviate their interference would be welcome!