Posted on 07/06/2012 5:07:42 AM PDT by rightwingintelligentsia
PITTSBURGH President Obama almost certainly cannot win Pennsylvania again on Nov. 6 without Pittsburgh.
He also needs a resurgence of the young voters who helped carry him in 2008, renewed enthusiasm in urban Democratic strongholds and sweeping faith in his economic vision, political analysts said.
Winning Ohio, another pivotal battleground state, would not hurt, either.
All of which could explain why the president is making Oakland a high-profile stop early in his re-election campaign, the political watchers said.
Obama is set for a 2:10 p.m. rally on Friday at Carnegie Mellon University, part of his Betting on America bus tour. Democratic leaders said he will focus on economic recovery and rebuilding the manufacturing sector, including through higher education. Campaign leaders made 3,000 to 4,000 free event tickets available, an Allegheny County official said on Tuesday.
Maybe he feels like he has to play a little bit of defense here, said David Lewis, a political science professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Democrats in blue-collar cities such as Pittsburgh have occasionally swung toward Republican presidential candidates, he noted.
Plus, the collegiate setting on the College of Fine Arts lawn might help Obama shore up some weaknesses with the university community and students, Lewis said.
Almost 41,000 students attend CMU and the nearby University of Pittsburgh combined.
I think there is a concerted effort on the part of the president to reach that group again, he said.
Obama in 2008 got some of his strongest support from young voters, as 66 percent of those younger than 30 backed him, according to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.
That base appears to have waned.
(Excerpt) Read more at wpxi.com ...
Youths need no coaxing.
They know that the only logical, brilliant, really-really smart, absolutely intelligent choice is the absolutely logical, brilliant, really-really smart, absolutely intelligent Democrat party.
/S/
IMHO
The lawn at CMU will be nothing but a community organizer’s safe house.
Makes sense to me-have a rally at a University campus in the middle of the summer when the students are on break. However, since many won’t/can’t find a job in the Obama economy, maybe they will show up for the day, light a j in their choomwagons beforehand, and then go listen to their messiah, while they contemplate how they will pay off their student loans at the 25th most expensive campus in America.
If that fails, they can always go recruit and pay off some SEIU Union goons to fill the space.
I live in Pittsburgh .... my prediction is they will be lucky to find 2,000 people willing to take those free tickets and listen to his bullsh!t.
Obama working very hard for that Chinese Grad Student vote...
Ping for updates.
Wishing he could choom like in the old days ping.
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