Wow.  I live in Chi and I never saw that traffic copter thing.  Thats funny.  The Sun-Times and the Trib haven't exactly given Obama the double helping of Olberman treatment that I was expecting at the beginning of this.  If anything, a few at the S-T have been trying to build up there rep on 'hitting him hard' over Rezko (about two years after the story broke, some of us here still remember), but you drive around and the HOPE signs are everywhere.  And NW Indy isn't exactly the eliteist hub of the midwest.  Everyone in this media market knew these stories a long time ago.  I get the feeling that the shock value just isn't there in the way that we'll see it in - say - WV and Kaintuck.

The intense coverage of the Wright affair has done damage to Obama and as Noam posts here, he probably will do less well in Northwestern Indiana than he would have done prior to the Wright controversy. Hillary by five, statewide.

Expectations setting by Noam?

Also, I giggled when I misred the title.  I thought you were tying into the Wright issue with "What Would NW Indiana Do?"   Ah, Jesus humor.  Who doesn't love it?

By NW Indiana, do you mean Gary and E. Chicago?  Obama should win by large margins there and he needs big turnout.  If you mean further out, then he may have a problem.  South Bend and W. Lafayette are university towns, but he could bleed support everywhere else (Valparaiso, Michigan City, etc.).

[A Hoosier]

Indiana hasn't seen a primary candidate since 1068. The state is small, predictable and our primary is the first Tuesday in May. This year voters don't have a say for the Republican candidate (it has been a red state since LBJ) so how do you think right leaning voters will 'use' their vote?

I only wish my anecdotal evidence could be measured because I've heard too many people admit they will vote for Hillary to 1.) Hope she wins and makes it easier for McCain. and/or 2.) At the worst, a Hillary vote will nullify any Obama effort and keep Hillary alive.

This was an intention before Rush or the wacko-right suggested it. See, Hillary was always preferred as the easy target by people who intended to vote R in the Fall. The lack an opponent for McCain (and Obama ahead) left no option but to vote against Obama. Then, back to McCain in the Fall.

Just a guess, but the Fall McCain voters who will veto Obama today may outnumber the A A vote. But 60+ adults and 50+ males do not want McCain to face Obama and anybody who thinks Indiana will be decided by voters who are choosing their candidate in the Fall? Well, they are doing that but they aren't voting for the person the prefer to win in the fall.

Ugh.  So Republicans conspire to keep Hillary alive via strategic voting in primaries.  The media blindly interprets this as a problem that Obama has with "white working class voters" and they assume it's all because of Wright, giving them a chance to lend respectability to the guilt by association argument, and the Democratic Party is torn apart instead of winning an easy one.

"Indiana hasn't seen a primary candidate since 1068."

Well, no wonder Hoosiers are excited.  

I think the Normans did fairly well in that primary.

Actually, it's interesting if you compare counties won by Bush in 04 to counties won by Clinton in the primaries for TX, OH and PA and probably many others.  Clinton usually wins the rural areas - the areas that Bush won in  04 while Obama usually takes the more urban areas like Kerry did in 04. Anyway - it will be interesting to see how it breaks down tonight.  

naomi88:

They did, and they went on to defeat the Anglo-Saxons in the fall.  The A-S's had been in any case severely weakened by the Vikings during their own primary season, so the Normans had the advantage of facing a tired and uncertain opponent.

Looking at the map now, and where the heart of the 20% of the Vote out there is, this seems to be the million dollar question doesn't it?

Looking at the map now, and where the heart of the 20% of the Vote out there is, this seems to be the million dollar question doesn't it?