Barack Obama, working-class hero?

Salon Magazine ^ | 3/31/08 | Mike Madden

[vrwc54]

On a bus tour through Pennsylvania, Obama tries to impress blue-collar white voters. He'll need them to keep the state close in April -- or to win it in November.

March 31, 2008 | ALTOONA, Pa. -- His sleeves rolled up but his tie still firmly knotted, Barack Obama picked up a shiny black bowling ball, strode confidently toward the lane and promptly hurled the ball straight into the right gutter. His second try missed right, too. It wasn't exactly a promising start to his first bowling trip in 30 years, on a campaign stop Saturday night. "Let me tell you something," he said, turning to the crowd of patrons -- and, he surely hoped, voters in next month's Democratic primary. "My economic plan is better than my bowling." "It has to be," a man standing nearby shot back.

But by the time Obama and Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey Jr. -- his newest, and most heavily trumpeted, supporter in the Keystone State -- had finished seven frames at Pleasant Valley Bowl, the Illinois Democrat's game had slowly, but steadily, improved. He kept his shots in the middle of the lane, though he rolled them without quite enough force to knock down all 10 pins at once. So what if Casey (who also hadn't bowled in years) wound up beating him? When Obama finally cleaned up a spare, he declared victory, changed out of his Velcro bowling shoes and hopped back on the bus that will carry him through Pennsylvania's small cities and towns until Wednesday.

"He has potential," said Roxanne Hart, 43, an Altoona resident who had invited Obama and Casey to join her lane. She was talking about his bowling; she had already decided what she thought of his politics. "I think he'd be a wonderful president."

[Fresh Wind]

Ruling class zero.

[Arrowhead1952]

strode confidently toward the lane and promptly hurled the ball straight into the right gutter. His second try missed right, too.

That is where he wants to take the USA - straight into the gutter.