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CBS anchor Katie Couric set the scene for her correspondents' demographic of Pennsylvania by introducing us to the commonwealth as a "kind of mini-America, urban and suburban, blue collar and professional, conservative and liberal, black and white and Hispanic." Disdaining the national pastime's Pirates and Phillies, Couric recommended a football metaphor for understanding the state. The Steelers' west is Rodham Clinton country, Roman Catholic and blue collar, culturally conservative. The Eagles' east is "more educated, affluent and liberal" with Philadelphia "evenly split between black and white."
Couric cautioned us not to confuse Pennsylvania with Ohio: "They are really more cousins than siblings" with Pennsylvania's population being more Catholic, more heavily unionized, older and more female.
Going round the state, CBS' Bill Whitaker saw Philadelphia, with its college students, wealthy suburbs and large black population, as "Obama's kind of a place." CBS' Nancy Cordes called Pittsburgh "whiter and older" than most urban areas and noted that many of the city's public schools close on the first Monday after Thanksgiving, "the first day of hunting season." Scranton, where Rodham Clinton claims family ties, "may not be Hillary country after all," warned CBS' Chip Reid after conducting vox pop, "and her roots may not be as deep as she thinks." And CBS' Kelly Cobiella looked at the surge in voter registration on the campuses of the Lehigh Valley and anticipated that "Muhlenberg College should be Obama country."
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