Clinton wins Pennsylvania

She has said she needed it. Tonight, she got it.

Sen. Hillary Clinton won the much-hyped Pennsylvania primary Tuesday, the first election in the past six weeks of this election cycle.

“Some people counted me out and said to drop out, but the American people don’t quit, and they deserve a president who doesn’t quit, either,” Clinton said after it was announced that she was the projected winner.

With 99 percent of the precincts reporting, Clinton has a 10-point lead over Obama, 55 percent to 45 percent. Of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, Obama only won seven, including Philadelphia, Delaware and Chester counties.

The crowd counted down at 7:59 p.m. to the statewide close of the polls at 8 p.m. In a scene reminiscent of New Year’s Eve, those supporters in attendance at the Bellevue Hotel cheered for their candidate.

“Keystone State, Hillary ’08,” the crowd chanted enthusiastically.

But the loudest cheers of the night came at 9:05 p.m., when CNN officially projected Clinton to win the long-awaited primary.

“Today, here in Pennsylvania, you’ve made your voices heard,” Clinton said on stage, joined with her husband, President Bill Clinton, and daughter, Chelsea. “And because of you, the tide is turning.”

After the polls closed, U.S. Reps. Allyson Schwartz and Joe Sestak spoke to the crowd of about 200, congratulating them on helping Clinton’s campaign.

“I can’t wait until next January,” Sestak said. “I just can’t wait to have Sen. Clinton be not just the next president of the United States of America, but also, I believe, one of the greatest commanders in chief we will ever have.”

Schwartz echoed Sestak’s response.

“As Pennsylvanians, I heard you say you wanted to be heard,” Schwartz said. “You wanted your vote counted. That’s what democracy is all about. Look how we were heard. We are going to take that message to the next nine contests.”

The senator was introduced by two of her biggest endorsers in Pennsylvania, Mayor Michael Nutter and Gov. Ed Rendell.

“Tomorrow, there’ll be all this discussion about how much and margins,” Nutter said. “All I can tell you is when I grew up in West Philadelphia, they said a win is a win, and that’s all that matters.”

The governor approached the podium with cell phone in hand as he addressed the crowd.

“Hold on, I need to take this. It’s a news station,” Rendell said. “They’ve just reported a major earthquake in Pennsylvania that’s going to shake up American politics.”

Throughout the day, horns honked in Center City from City Hall down to Locust Street, but generally not for the Clinton campaign. Obama supporters filled the median on South Broad Street as drivers showed their support through honks.

Clinton supporters gathered on the west side of City Hall, chanting and cheering to the passing cars hours before the polls closed. The senator thanked all of her supporters throughout the state for their continued enthusiasm.

“I might stumble, and I might get knocked down, but as long as you stand with me, I will always get right back up,” she said.

After the post-primary party concluded, a throng of people remained outside the Bellevue, waiting to catch one last glimpse of the Clintons. Some traveled across the country just to show their support.

“I think a win is a win,” said Dali Schroedel, a native of San Francisco. “I think she’s won all the states she needs to beat Obama. No one should try to minimize this win.”

Mali Kigasari, from Oakland, Calif., took five months off from her job to follow Clinton around the country and support her favorite candidate.

“I think she’s a great candidate,” Kigsari said. “There’s no way Sen. Obama can win.”

However, seven primary elections remain, and many superdelegates are undecided. Either candidate still has a chance of winning the nomination. But Kigsari said she fears the divide that the election cycle has created thus far.

“Whoever wins this nomination is only going to win by 51 percent,” she said. “We need to bring the party together.”

Both Democratic candidates will be campaigning heavily for the next round of primaries to be held May 6 in North Carolina and Indiana.

“We still have a lot of work ahead of us,” Clinton said. “But if you’re ready, I’m ready.”

Chris Stover can be reached at stover@temple.edu.

Audio report from the scene, recorded at 10:52 p.m.

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Is that bias for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama?

She’s been compared to a monster and Rocky. High-ranking Democrats have called for her to quit the race. And the media have been ruthless in her campaign coverage, including commentary by The Temple News.

It seems that no matter what Sen. Hillary Clinton does, she’s under constant attack by the media. The other presidential candidates don’t have that pleasure.

For example, MSNBC’s David Shuster said in February that former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton was “being pimped out” by her mother. Yet no one says anything about Sen. John McCain’s traveling, blogging daughter.

Another incident occurred when President Bill Clinton recently tried to defend his wife’s misspoken words about Bosnia, saying she was tired at 11 p.m. one night and was under a lot of pressure when she gave the speech.

The media filled with glee. I remember watching the local news that night, as the anchor speculated about the contradiction between the president’s statement and the infamous “3 a.m.” Clinton commercial.

The anchor said, and I paraphrase, “Some wonder if Hillary Clinton can answer the phone at 3 a.m. if she can’t even speak clearly at 11 p.m.”

Such unfair, presumptive attacks on the senator seem like attempts by local and national media to slant their coverage toward Sen. Barack Obama. That is, until ABC’s nationally televised debate last Wednesday.

Moderators and ABC journalists Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos have been heavily criticized for their handling the debate. Many say they spent too much time on rumor control rather than hard issues and agree that the debate was slanted to Clinton’s favor.

ABC helped to give journalists – broadcast journalists, in particular – a credibility battle. First, Stephanopoulos was a staffer under President Clinton, which, to me, presents a clear conflict of interest.

It wasn’t until halfway through the debate that “real” questions began to get answered – questions on taxes and the economy, the war in Iraq. Questions that truly matter to millions of Americans.

ABC had a chance to shine with their exclusive debate, yet floundered by asking questions about not wearing U.S. flag pins or associating with an outspoken pastor.

If this was ABC’s attempt to give Clinton a larger lead in Pennsylvania’s primary polls, it nearly failed. If they tried forcefully to depict Clinton as the Rocky underdog, it could have turned voters off.

But thankfully for the democratic process, Pennsylvanians responded while ignoring the polls. Despite media reports of Obama closing the gap within percentage points, Clinton won by about 10 percent of the votes.

As journalists, it is our responsibility to find the truth. We present the objective facts and avoid speculation. It is a journalist’s duty to report all facts from all views so the audience can make its own speculations and decisions – despite personal beliefs of the New York senator.

These are fundamental rules of journalism – fundamental rules that many news organization seem to have forgotten.

But they aren’t the ones suffering here. We are.

Chris Stover can be reached at stover@temple.edu.

Primary issues: Students could have a major impact

With the Pennsylvania primary potentially determining the Democratic nominee today, college voters possess the ability to have a big impact on the outcome of the election.

“Historically, young people don’t vote in the same numbers as older people do,” said Joseph McLaughlin, assistant dean of the College of Liberal Arts. “Everyone would hope that the enthusiasm which has been generated in this primary carries over [to future elections].”

Because of the amount of votes from the black and university communities, Philadelphia and its region should be overwhelmingly Sen. Barack Obama’s territory, McLaughlin said. However, the state is still leaning toward Sen. Hillary Clinton, as she leads by 9 percent, according to a Temple poll released earlier this month.

Obama has a strong base of support from young people in Pennsylvania with 79 percent, compared with Clinton’s 12 percent of likely Democratic voters ages 18 to 29, according to the Temple poll.

These numbers, along with highest registration gains in the city around college campuses including University of Pennsylvania as well as Temple and Drexel University, should be a good indicator for Obama, as registration can forecast turnout. Although, if this demographic fails to arrive at the polls today, it will hurt him, McLaughlin said.

“Obama has excited the young voters because his message is that it’s time to rise above the highly partisan special interest driven politics that probably a lot of younger voters see as a legacy of the Bush era, and he represents a fresher start and he is the kind of candidate that they hope that their generation is going to be responsive to,” McLaughlin said.

Sophomore tourism and hospitality management major Candice Moore agrees that Obama is a young fresh face.

“I feel like he addresses a lot of issues that college students can relate to and [that] African Americans [can relate to],” she said.
Clinton, too, has developed an effective strategy targeting the younger generations by using her daughter to campaign for her, McLaughlin said.

“From what I’ve seen of Chelsea [Clinton], she’s doing a very good job for her mom, and I think they were smart to use her and maybe should have gotten her involved earlier,” he said.

Looking ahead to the general election in November, Clinton holds more Democratic votes that Obama does against presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain.

Among Obama supporters, 58 percent of voters will vote for Clinton whereas 48 percent of Clinton supporters will vote for Obama, if he wins the nominee. In both groups, 21 percent plan to vote for McCain in November. Another 6 percent and 13 percent of voters would not vote if Obama or Clinton, respectively, did not win the nomination, according to the Keystone Poll by Franklin & Marshall College released last week.

“I feel the [Obama] movement is too far off to the left,” said Beth Tucker, a freshman majoring in biology, who plans to vote for Clinton today. “I’d probably vote for McCain [in November]. It’s the lesser of the two evils.”

Not all Obama supporters will stick to party lines come November.

“I will vote for Hillary if she wins the popular vote,” said Chris Banks, sophomore journalism major and Obama supporter. “But if she wins because of superdelegates, I will vote for John McCain out of spite.”

But sophomore film major Andy Smith said there is another option for Obama supporters.

“I wouldn’t vote for Hillary, but I don’t know if I’d vote for John McCain,” he said, adding that he could vote for Obama as a write-in candidate.

Heather Harvey, a senior biology major, will cast her vote for Clinton today, but if Obama wins, she said she will remain loyal to the Democratic Party in November.

“I don’t want Bush’s ideas anywhere near the White House ever again,” she said.

While Maggie Blazick, a junior psychology major, plans to vote for Obama today, citing his speech on race last month in Philadelphia as winning her over, she will vote for whichever Democratic candidate receives the nominee in the general election.

“It was a very close race in my mind,” she said about choosing between the two candidates. “Ideally, they could be on the ballot together [in November].”

Amanda Snyder can be reached at asnyder@temple.edu.

TTN Video: War of words at Constitution Center

NCC Debate: Photo Slideshow

Hundreds of supporters for both Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama stood outside the National Constitution Center hours before Wednesday’s debate. Though it appeared Clinton supporters outnumbered Obama’s, both groups were enthusiastic for their respective candidates.

Read TTN’s coverage here.

Photos by Chris Stover

Democrats debate at National Constitution Center

Photo courtesy Michael Bryant, Philadelphia Inquirer

To see TTN’s photo slideshow of voters before the debate, click here.

Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton went head to head at the Constitution Center Wednesday night in a tense, nationally televised debate.

With less than a week to the Pennsylvania Primary on April 22, the two made their cases to the people of Pennsylvania and all of America. Moderators Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos hit the candidates hard and opened the debate with a question that has been on many minds.

Gibson asked the two if they would commit to having the other candidate as their vice president if they won the nomination. After a long pause, Obama danced around the question.

“Look, this has been an extraordinary journey that both Sen. Clinton and I have been on and a number of other able candidates. And I think very highly of Sen. Clinton’s record,” Obama said. “But as I’ve said before, I think it’s premature at this point for us to talk about who vice presidential candidates will be, because we’re still trying to determine who the nominee will be.”

Clinton wouldn’t commit to a Clinton-Obama ticket if she were to receive the nomination but said that come January, one of them is going to be in the White House.

Obama spent much of the first half hour defending personal choices he has made on the campaign trail from his affiliation to Rev. Jeremiah Wright to his friendship with William Ayres, a former member of a radical group that carried out numerous bombings during the 1960’s.

Clinton chastised Obama’s choice to continue attending Wright’s church, even after he made controversial remarks after Sept. 11.

“For Pastor Wright to have given his first sermon after 9/11 and to have blamed the United States for the attack, which happened in my city of New York, would have been just
intolerable for me,” Clinton said. “And, therefore, I would have not been able to stay in the church.”

The debate incorporated video questions from voters. Via video, Tom Rooney asked Clinton how she would rebuild her credibility after her misspeaking on her trip to Bosnia.

“I wrote about going to Bosnia in my book in 2004. I laid it all out there. And you’re right. On a couple of occasions in the last weeks, I just said some things that weren’t in keeping with what I knew to be the case and what I had written about in my book. And, you know, I’m embarrassed by it,” Clinton said. “I have apologized for it. I’ve said it was a mistake.”

She blamed the gaff on a lack of sleep and said that she is proud she was able to go to Bosnia and more than 80 other countries. Clinton said her extensive international experience gives her a great advantage in the election, especially against Sen. John McCain.

Voter Mandy Garber of Pittsburgh wanted to know if the candidates really planned on pulling troops out of Iraq or if it was just talk to get elected.

Obama said the president has final say over military decisions and that he is disappointed with the current president’s choice to just follow Gen.David Petraeus.

“Well, the president sets the mission. The general and our troops carry out that mission. And, unfortunately, we have had a bad mission set by our civilian leadership, which our military has performed brilliantly,” Obama said. “But it is time for us to set a strategy that is going to make the American people safer.”

He added that the U.S. military is overstretched right now and would not be able to tend to another region if a crisis broke out.

Clinton said when she takes office, she would ask her security advisers to devise a plan to start withdrawing troops within 60 days.

“I will make it very clear that we will do so in a responsible and careful manner because, obviously, withdrawing troops and equipment is dangerous,” Clinton said. “I will also make it clear to the Iraqis that they no longer have a blank check from the president of the United States.”

She said withdrawing the troops will force the Iraqis to develop better diplomatic relations.

In a poll conducted by Temple, Clinton leads Obama 44 percent to 35 percent among Democratic voters in Pennsylvania who will likely vote in the primary.

With more than 150 pledged delegates up for grabs in Pennsylvania, Tuesday’s primary could end up being a major determinant of who gets the nomination for the Democratic Party.

LeAnne Matlach can be reached at leannematlach@temple.edu.

Hillary Clinton makes Drexel appearance

Across Pennsylvania college and university campuses, political momentum has been picking up.

On Friday, Sen. Hillary Clinton addressed a crowd of 1,000, mostly college-aged supporters and voters on the campus of Drexel University.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, Trenton Mayor Douglas Palmer and U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz were on hand to introduce Clinton.

“Sen. Clinton understands certain things about this country,” Nutter said. “Now is the time and Philly is the place to discuss urban issues in this campaign.”

Both Clinton and her rival, Sen. Barack Obama, have aggressively targeted college voters.

Obama recently held a rally at Penn State. Clinton spoke at McGonigle Hall last month, and her daughter, Chelsea, campaigned for her mother Friday at Mitten Hall.

At Drexel, Clinton tried to reach out to young voters by outlining her plans for lowering college costs and interest rates.
“Young people – I want them to feel their president cares about their future,” Clinton said. “This isn’t about the next election, it’s about the next generation.”

Clinton also used the rally to discuss comments Obama made earlier in the week about Pennsylvanians.

Obama was quoted as saying, “You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them… And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

Clinton defended Pennsylvania voters and said the people she has met are not bitter, but hard-working and
resilient.

“Pennsylvania doesn’t need a president who looks down on them,” she said. “They need a president who stands up for them, who fights for them, who works hard for your futures, your jobs, your families.”

Clinton also addressed healthcare, the environment, U.S. economy, jobs, education and urban issues in her speech.

According to a Temple poll, Clinton leads Obama 44 percent to 35 percent among Pennsylvanians likely to vote in the April 22 Democratic primary.  Nineteen percent remained undecided, but the poll projects that those voters are more likely to choose Obama.
University of Pennsylvania student Jae Bang, 20, attended the Clinton rally at Drexel. He said he is still undecided.

“I think I’m more of an Obama fan. I’m in between,” Bang said. “I really liked [Clinton’s speech]. It was more constructive than I thought it’d be.”

The Temple poll also suggests that supporters of both candidates are motivated to vote for different reasons.

It states, “Clinton supporters are more likely to have a history of voting, while Obama supporters are more engaged in this particular election.”

Pennsylvania is predicted to be a crucial state in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The push to get college students to vote is clear. And they, along with the rest of Pennsylvania residents, will have the chance to do so in just one week.

Melissa DiPento can be reached at mdipento@temple.edu.

Chelsea Clinton visits campus, talks foreign policy with students

With the Pennsylvania primary less than two weeks away, former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton spoke at Temple Friday night to spread her mother’s message.

“I am really proud to be here on behalf of my mom,” Clinton said. “I am an adamant supporter of my mom. I believe that my mother is the strongest, most progressive and most prepared on all of the issues that are important to me and, I imagine, the issues that are important to you.”

She addressed an audience of more than 200 students in the Great Court of Mitten Hall and answered as many questions as the hour allowed.

Students’ questions focused on world issues such as the ongoing genocide in Darfur and the war in Iraq.

Clinton said her mother would institute a no-fly zone over Darfur to combat the insurgents and the violence.

“My mother believes that there is no military solution to the war in Iraq,” Clinton said. “If she could, she would have ended the war yesterday.”

Clinton said the United States has a moral obligation to help the more than 3,000 Iraqi civilians who have sided with and aided the U.S. military. After taking office, she said her mother would begin pulling troops out of Iraq.

Ryan McCool, president of Temple’s College Republicans, wanted to know about Sen. Hillary Clinton’s military strategies but had one other very important question on his mind.

“I could make up a lot of reasons and explanations as to why I’m here, but what it all comes down to is that I am here tonight to get Chelsea Clinton’s phone number,” McCool said. “I think I can get it.”

When McCool put Clinton on the spot and asked her if she’d ever date a McCain supporter, he was sorely shot down.
“I’m very proud that my boyfriend supports my mom,” Clinton said as the crowd roared with applause. “Sorry.”

A more serious issue that was raised was healthcare and Clinton’s plan for universal insurance.

“As much as I wish that people who are uninsured today would never get sick that’s not true,” Clinton said. “Instead of people being able to go into the healthcare system when they need to they’ll continue to rely on the emergency room, which is the most expensive form of care.”

If elected, she said her mother would make sure everyone would be insured.

“I am really proud that more than half of my lifetime ago, my mom first stood up for universal healthcare coverage in our country before it was a popular topic,” Clinton said.

Malcom Kinyatta, a freshman theater major and self-proclaimed Clinton supporter, said he was thankful for the senator’s work on healthcare.

“My love for Hillary started back in 1999. My parents got divorced and my dad lost his job, so I didn’t have healthcare and the [State Children’s Health Insurance Program] was something that Hillary and other people championed,” Kinyatta said.

The health insurance program allowed Kinyatta to go to a doctor instead of the more expensive emergency room.

“That was something that directly helped me,” he said. “That is why I support Hillary Clinton.”

LeAnne Matlach can be reached at leannematlach@temple.edu.

President Owl: National campaigns remind us of municipal and state battles.

Every four years, presidential campaigning comes to Pennsylvania, to Philadelphia, to Temple and the student body manages to seem politically energized.

Sen. Hillary Clinton rallied in McGonigle Hall, and last week, Chelsea Clinton appeared in Mitten, as reported by The Temple News today [“Chelsea Clinton visits campus, talks foreign policy with students,” LeAnne Matlach, April 15, 2008]. It became clearer still that the national spotlight was again on Philadelphia’s political climate again when Sen. Barack Obama gave one of the most consequential speeches of our generation at the National Constitution Center, as reported by The Temple News.

In 2004, Sen. John Kerry visited both Temple and the University of Pennsylvania, as reported by The Temple News.

The Temple News ran cover stories on student demonstrations and protests, including a photo of Kim Plank and Jessica Wallen, then members of Temple College Republicans, dressed as a pair of flip flops, criticizing Kerry for changing his stance on campaign issues.

Democracy in action, with students acting as a driving force. Yet we fear now as we feared then, amid all the growth and on-campus development Temple has seen, we can’t seem to get excited about municipal and state elections. Sen. Arlen Specter was facing a challenge from Rep. Joe Hoeffel, now active in Gov. Ed Rendell’s administration, a challenge Specter overcame without many students paying attention, as reported by The Temple News.

Four years later, as Clinton and Obama get ready to do battle on April 22, students have a chance to involve themselves in a host of important local campaigns but find only the biggest fish are worth fishing for, as highlighted by a debate between Temple College Republicans and Democrats.

Set aside challenged Pennsylvania house district primaries in the Northeast’s 179th and South Philly’s 184th, the Democratic primary to fill the State Senate seat of outgoing Sen. Vince Fumo has enormous implications for the city and Mayor Michael Nutter’s administration but is also garnering statewide attention. John Dougherty, Local 98 electrician’s union business manager and Fumo political enemy, is leading in the dollar count, but he’s seeing significant pressure from lawyer Larry Farnese and political activist Anne Dicker.

Yet, that doesn’t seem to excite many Temple students like Hillary or Barack, assuring we can expect Temple to remain politically active once every four years.

Clinton defends Pennsylvania after Obama’s remarks

“Pennsylvania doesn’t need a president who looks down on them. They need a president who stands up for them, who fights for them, who works hard for your futures, your jobs, your families.”

That was the message Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton made at a rally this afternoon on the campus of Drexel University.

The issue: comments Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama made earlier in the week at a closed-press event in San Francisco.

Obama was quoted as saying, “You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them… And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

Clinton responded to the Drexel audience by saying that the people from Pennsylvania she’s met are not bitter, but hard-working and resilient.

With 11 days remaining until the primary elections in Pennsylvania, Clinton vowed to supporters that she would not quit.

Among other things, Clinton covered the economy, job market, energy and education.

Speaking to a room that was mostly packed with college-aged supporters, Clinton discussed her plans to lower college costs and interest rates and to make education more available to everyone.

“Young people – I want them to feel their president cares about their future. This isn’t about the next election, it’s about the next generation,” Clinton said.

Pennsylvania is the sixth-largest state in terms of delegates, with 12.4 million people and 178 delegates, and has proven to be a key battleground state in the past.

Melissa DiPento can be reached at mdipento@temple.edu.

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