An assessment of Pennsylvania from the 2008 election

[RINO Tom]

Yeah but it's not a looney fringe analysis either. Pennsylvania is NOT a uniformly Midwestern state. The East half is very northeastern and cosmopolitan. Philadelphia is way more similar to New York and Jersey City and definitely Baltimore than it is to Altoona, Pittsburgh, and Erie. Granted, the western half is very midwestern.

And it's very hard if not possible for Democrats to win the non-Pittsburgh western half of the state. Back when Dems were the party of Appalachia, it was easier, but now those voters are republican as hell. Dems would be wise to try and boost turnout in Pittsburgh, Erie, Scranton, Philly, as well as Bucks and Montgomery county and the entire Eastern chunk of PA.

Also, wasn't Hillary's problem a lack of turnout in key urban areas?

Or a Midwestern state at all.

[RINO Tom]

Pennsylvania isn't Midwestern but it's not "Northeast liberal" either.

Well, sure ... but it's still "Northeastern."  This is the problem with political junkies talking about geography (or anything, for that matter) - they just can't remove politics from the conversation.  Cook County, IL (Chicago and some inner suburbs) voted 74% for Hillary Clinton.  Woodford County, IL (fairly wealthy exurban Peoria) voted 68.0% for Donald Trump.  Both are 110% nothing but Midwestern.  Their political differences just simply cannot be explained through geography, and that is the end of the story.  Nobody in Pennsylvania would identify as "Midwestern" just because they have differences with other folks in the region known as the Northeast.

[RINO Tom]

^ Agreed.  Northeastern is not synonymous with Northeastern elite (just as "rust belt" isn't synonymous with the Midwest).

Agreed on most points, though I have to laugh at the notion that the Northeast is "elite" in some real sense.

[RINO Tom]

I wish exit polls would actually break out "working class Whites" and show the White vote by income.