PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AFP) — Hillary Clinton downed a whiskey, while Barack Obama went bowling: in their populist panders, the White House rivals reflect the blue-collar tinge of Tuesday's Pennsylvania's primary.
The northeastern state's contest is a tale of two cities, suffering steeltown Pittsburgh and inner-city Philadelphia, plus a rural, conservative belt in between, making the state a microcosm of the US electoral map.
Blue-collar workers, feeling the pinch from the flight of working class jobs abroad and stalked by fears of recession, should be a natural fit for Clinton, who has a hold on lower income sectors of the Democratic electorate.
Obama meanwhile will pin his hopes on winning a huge majority in Philadelphia, which he filled with 35,000 supporters at a huge rally on Friday night, and the state's multitudes of students.
Clinton pounced on Obama's remarks in liberal California this month that some smalltown Americans were "bitter" and clung to God and guns, hoping to define her foe as an "elitist" aloof from Pennsylvanian workers.
Tuesday's election returns will be combed for evidence on whether 'bitter-Gate' hurt Obama, as the former first lady positioned herself as a champion of the working class.
She needs a big win in the state, to boost her claims Obama cannot win the working class, swing voters up for grabs here, which are vital in general elections, and in other states like Ohio and across the Midwest.
Clinton Saturday reminisced about her grandfather who worked in a Pennsylvania lace mill, and her father who played football for a Penn State University team which has a rabid following.
"My feelings about Pennsylvania are real personal ... also because I know how hard people in this state work," she said in York County, which touts its industrial heritage by billing itself as the Factory Tour Capital of the World.
Polls show the economy is the dominant issue in the primary, outpacing the war in Iraq.
Both candidates have taken a decidedly populist turn, vowing tax breaks for the middle class and the return of manufacturing jobs. Clinton was pictured downing pints and shots in a gritty bar.
The former first lady's rallies Saturday had a no nonsense feel.
Parts of her soundtrack could have ripped from a Republican event, featuring the patriotic country music anthem "Only in America."
Bruce Springsteen's "Promised Land" also got an airing, even though the blue-collar bard endorsed Obama a few days ago.
Obama meanwhile tore a page out of US campaign history.
Like a presidential candidate of old, he hopped on a train at Philadelphia's 30th Street station, and pulled the whistle, as he trekked off through southeastern regions of the state.
Earlier in the campaign, Obama spent days on a bus, stopping in small rural towns, bolstering his regular guy credentials, sipping on beers, and even venturing, with dubious results, into a bowling alley.
He has been shadowed by Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey, who is from a state dynasty of politicians favored by blue-collar voters.
Pennsylvania sits on partisan faultline of US politics.
Its current governor is a Democrat, Ed Rendell, who supports Clinton, while it has one Republican senator, and Casey, the Democrat. The state narrowly voted for Democrats Al Gore and John Kerry over George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004.
Philadelphia, the cradle of US democracy, is dominated by machine politics but is showing the strains of a fiercely contested campaign.
The town's black mayor Michael Nutter backs Clinton, while many African American ward leaders support Obama.
But Obama is also expected to dominate in the some of the town's newly affluent outer suburbs, where more educated, younger people are moving in.
Clinton targets union towns with heavy concentrations of Roman Catholics like Altoona and Johnstown, hoping to counteract Obama's expected landslide in Philadelphia.
"She needs to win big to offset whatever gains he is going to have there," said Tom Baldino, professor of politics at Wilkes University, Pennsylvania.
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