corrente

April 22, 2008 - MSNBC:

CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC ANCHOR: All this talk, I heard Chuck, about the power of Eddie Rendell and Michael Nutter; in Philadelphia anybody knows the city is divided. Of course, you go to south Philly; Hillary Clinton will do very well there against Barack Obama. Northeast Philly, where I'm from, Hillary Clinton will do very well against Barack Obama there. Yes, there are liberals downtown, who might vote a different way. It isn't the power of the big shots. It's the people telling their ward leaders how they want to vote and committee people.

TRANSLATION: You see, according to Tweety, "liberals", especially those "downtown" liberals, might vote a "different way" (for Obama). - Now, one might even conclude that voting a "different way" might grant those "downtown" liberlas some kind of mystical MAVERICK status. OMG! - Blasphemy! Perish the thought (there can only be one MAVERICK!)

Quickly - before the wax on the dummy begins to melt! - let's get back to Tweety's hometownie grass rootsy analysis:

MATTHEWS: This is a grass roots campaign. We are picking a president here. Nobody is going to tell you how to vote for president. Sure, they can organize better, get the vote out, perhaps move people around. But in the end -- Howard you know this. You know Philadelphia. And I have to tell you, the idea it would be about 60 percent is not a big surprise. The fact that there are some white liberals who will join the African-American support for Barack Obama is known, certainly down in Centre City and Society Hill, and some of the other areas in the northeast.

TRANSLATION: The others! "Big shots"! from "Society Hill"! - (Creative Class!) "white liberals" are coniving with "African-Americans" to support Barack Obama! What will we tell the "regular people"!?

MATTHEWS: But generally, we know there are a lot of regular people in the northeast who are going to see Hillary Clinton as the hometown girl. She was up there the other day campaigning as a hometown girl. It doesn't surprise me it's about 60 to 65 percent for Barack in Philadelphia. He'll be lucky to get anywhere near 70. It's not because of Michael Nutter or Ed Rendell. It's because that's how people think.

TRANSLATION: Yes, of course, that's how "people" think... "regular people". It all makes sense to me now: "white liberals" and "African American's" who support Barack Obama aren't like "regular people" (and not like Tweety, and his kind from the "norhteast", where he, hometown Tweety, and hometown girls, come from).

MATTHEWS: As somebody once said to me in this campaign, a lot of people in this campaign decided how to vote back in 1957. They have thought about how to vote and they are going to vote this way. A lot of this is neighborhood, a lot of it.

Uh huh. I wonder who that "somebody" was.

1957:

August 28 - United States Senator Strom Thurmond (D-SC) set the record for the longest filibuster with his 24-hour, 18-minute speech railing against a civil rights bill.

September 24 - U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends federal troops to Arkansas to provide safe passage into Central High School for the Little Rock Nine.

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