Yesterday I was interviewed by Pete Dominick, host of Pete’s Big Mouth, on Sirius Radio.  He led off his series of questions about Pennsylvania and the PA primary with a question about whether some Democrats voted for Clinton because of Obama’s race. I know some of them did, because quite a few of them told me they would. This issue doesn’t receive a lot of media attention, but it is a fact of our lives.

Of course, race motivates some people.  If you’re a young African-American father, like the guy I talked to during Obama’s final rally in Pittsburgh, then you might find that Obama, as a fellow African-American, is inspirational because of the juxtaposition of his color and his status, and you sincerely hope that your child inherits his legacy in some way.  On the other hand, if you’re a young white guy hauling heavy camera gear up and down Heart Attack Hill in Oakland for the Obama rally at $9/hour, and you live in Wilkinsburg with some of the worst African-American gang violence and poverty in Pittsburgh, you might say, as did the sweaty guy in front of me in the media line for the Obama rally, “I wouldn’t walk across the street for this n#@!&er if I wasn’t being paid to do it.”

Did most of Clinton’s supporters vote for her because of Obama’s race?  Of course not.  We do not live in a post-racial society, but neither do we live in a pre-civil rights society either.  Clinton still would’ve carried Pennsylvania, and Obama will still probably carry Pennsylvania in November.  Republicans are not inherently more racially biased than Democrats.  They actually nominated Lynn Swann, an African-American, for Governor in 2006 to run against Ed Rendell.

Barack Obama’s mother was a white woman with Irish ancestry.  Barack Obama’s father was a black man with Kenyan ancestry.  Why, if he is equally as white as he is black, is he always black?  Sure, he adopts that self-identification, but does he really have a choice in how others would racially categorize him?  Who wouldn’t/doesn’t consider him black?  So, does black taint the white and so detract from it for us that we no longer remember or think of the white?

I want to thank all of you for following the Pennsylvania primary with us. Many of you reading this blog took the time to let us know your thoughts on the race, the candidates and the issues, and that’s always helpful.

We’ve had a number of very talented writers of all ages and political stripes across the state blogging this race here at PaPrimary.com. Without their time, talent and energy, none of this would have been possible.

What did we achieve with this blog?

Our user statistics software tells me that by the end of this race, we had over 5,000 people reading on a regular basis. That seems remarkable to me, because six weeks ago, this blog didn’t even exist.
It further tells me that our readers work in both houses of the US Congress, major media outlets like CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, The Politico, The Washington Post, The LA Times, The Boston Globe and others, local and regional media outlets like KDKA, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Patriot-News. We’ve also been privileged to have many more readers, both within Pennsylvania and around the world, not reading on a Congressional or press computer.

On a personal level, I’ve had the opportunity to meet a lot of interesting people from inside and outside of Pennsylvania. Perhaps more importantly, I also think that we’ve had something of an impact on the coverage of the race by the national media by helping to reveal the local to all of those reporters flying into the commonwealth. I have, for instance, had more conversations with confused reporters wanting to know who Franco Harris is and what relevance he has in western Pennsylvania than I can count.

While the Pennsylvania primary is now over, I hope that at least some of you will now join me as I, and hopefully others, continue to write at TeaBird.com.

According to the Pennsylvania Department of State’s election returns website, 99.34% of precincts have reported results.

Clinton 1,237,696

Obama 1,043,174

That puts Clinton 194,522 votes ahead of Obama for a winning margin of 8.6%, and it puts my 8% prediction right on the money.

UPDATE: As Patsy points out in the comments, it’s now been updated at the PA Secretary of State. Now, with 99.44% reporting, Hillary’s margin of victory is now 9.2%. So, my prediction was off — but only by a little bit!

We won’t know the margin of her victory in the Pennsylvania primary yet, but it wasn’t long before all of the networks called the race.  Will it be enough for her to overcome his delegate lead, or, perhaps more immediately, be enough for her to raise enough money quickly to get out of debt?

Rather than rely on me or other media outlets for early returns, why not get your Pennsylvania primary results straight from the source at the Pennsylvania Department of State’s own website?  Pennsylvania, for the most part, has great web services.  Lots of media outlets try to siphon readers onto their websites (to get the most ad revenue) with promises of “live” results, but why bother?

Pennsylvania Republicans continued the McCain winning streak of essentially uncontested primaries. Ron Paul was on the ballot, but his candidacy has long been past viable.

According to Pittsburgh political reporting legend Jon Delano, turnout in Allegheny County is likely to exceed previous records, hitting the 60% mark.  Interestingly, turnout is notably higher than usual in Penn Hills (high African-American population), East End/East Liberty (high A-A/Obama headquarters), Moon township (part of the Obama-friendly Cranberry exurb), Shadyside (wealthy & liberal) and the North Hills (see Shadyside and Moon).

Kevin Evanto, Allegheny County Director of Communications, reports that election officials expect about a 60-percent voter turnout, hitting the predicted Democratic turnout number and perhaps exceeding it.

Evanto stated high higher than normal turnout numbers in Moon Township, Penn Hills, East End, Shadyside and the North Hills.

The CNN version of early exit polls of the Pennsylvania primary say that:

• New voters choose Obama over Clinton by 60 to 38
• But, late deciding voters chose Clinton over Obama 58 to 42.  This is as it has been in previous primaries.

ABC News’ version of the early exit polling in the PA primary says that:

• 1/2 are self-identified liberals — way more than the 1/4 to 1/3 typical in past Pennsylvania primaries
• 40% are gun owners — no surprise there
• Just under 1/2 have a college degree — more than the 38% in Ohio

Fresh from the unreliable Drudge Report, here are more of the Fox News early Pennsylvania primary exit polls:

Among Women:

Clinton 55

Obama 44

Among Men:

Clinton 47

Obama53