Friday, October 31, 2008

And With That, McCain Loses Pennsylvania

I'm not a Palin fan, but I'll chalk this one up to fatigue and a crazy travel schedule as opposed to idiocy:
It was a throwaway line meant to be a crowd-pleaser. But it fell flat.

On Thursday at a rally in Erie, Pa., Sarah Palin touted the victors in the World Series to thousands of supporters. "I am thrilled to be here in the home state of the world-champion Philadelphia Phillies," Palin said.

The crowd booed.

Philadelphia is a seven-hour drive from Erie, which is in the state's far west. Erie's baseball devotions are split between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Cleveland Indians. (Pittsburgh and Cleveland are about two hours away.)

It's like Peter Frampton accidentally asking Lansing if it was ready to rock when, in reality, he's playing Saginaw. It happens.

8 comments:

TC said...

I don't think it's necessarily a hectic travel schedule thing. It might be more of an Alaskan thing. From what I can tell from hearing Ms Palin speak, Alaskans have a lot of state pride, whereas PA doesn't. It might be reasonable, in AK, to talk about the accomplishments of people in Anchorage to people in Juneau. In PA, though, the dividing line is roughly in State College. I give her a pass on the "gaffe", if it's even worth calling it that.

Craig Calcaterra said...

It's also worth noting that, when you're from Alaska, a few hundred miles between places isn't that big of a deal.

And I agree: this isn't a gaffe as we typically understand the term. I'm totally giving her a pass on this.

G-Man said...

Yes, we need a president like Obama who knows that Pennsylvania is the 57th state.

Anonymous said...

I originally read that as "Matt Cain."

Anonymous said...

Sagnasty!

mcb said...

Yeah, well, Manhattanites say "I'm going to Pennsylvania . . . "

What the hell does that mean? Philadelphia? Pittsburgh? Poconos? You know, PA is pretty freakin' large state.

I don't blame Palin. She just repeated what countless others have done -- lump all Pennsylvanians into one big mass. And that CANNOT, under any circumstances, be done . . .

Anonymous said...

What? No Spinal Tap references?

Andy said...

It's not that there is no state pride in PA, it's that they have more than one team. You don't do a rally on campus at Auburn and talk about the great year that Alabama is having.