T& I are suckers for political theater. On perhaps the most beautiful day of the fall, we canned our afternoon bike trip through Valley Forge for a jaunt to one of the most dangerous areas in Philadelphia. Why? Presidential politics of course. Through the kaleidoscope of an election-year fall, a beaten-down inner-city corner in West Philadelphia seems sunnier and happier than the foliage and fauns of General Washington's lush encampment--or for that matter, the rather dull McCain events (no offense John).
In West Philly, the enthusiasm runs rampant. A mix of bicycling, white, UPenn types blend in with Philly's African-American community on 52nd and Locust. A cottage industry of “Barack-the-Vote” paraphernalia dominates the scene. For obvious reasons, T & I decide to skip the Obama rally towel, the Obama cat bandanna, and the Obama meets 2Pac XXL. Our sloganeering consists of those little red, nonpartisan "I voted stickers". The whole setting reminds me of an early Pentecostal meeting--with all its inter-class and inter-race exuberance. By the time the evangelist reaches the stage, it’s a bit of a letdown. BHO begins his standard pie-in-the sky stump speech with a riff on preexisting conditions here, some middle-class tax cut promises there, and an amusing spiel on turning off TVs and fathering over there.
Most interestingly, the usual partisan attacks at McCain are there but the boos are muted. When Obama stops to praise McCain for reining in his rhetoric over the past day people cheer. Now I've been to a fair share of Bush and McCain extravaganzas. And to be fair the energy is almost equivalent--or at least the decibel level of the music, but the energy at these events is mostly directed at the political foe. On 52nd and Locust nobody seemed to care about McCain/Palin--not a single vehement "McSame" or "No Country for Old Men" T-Shirt was to be found. As BHO leaves, the über-country song, “Only in America” is blaring in the streets of West Philly.
