What’s Wrong With Pennsylvania?
On June 30, 2011, an enthusiastic Mitt Romney arrived here in the heart of the Lehigh Valley determined to make Pennsylvania a presidential battleground state.
Standing before the closed Allentown Metal Works, Romney told reporters: “The president is a nice guy and I know he’s trying, but he doesn’t understand how the economy works” — a line that Romney later observed had resonated with focus groups.
A key assumption underpinned Romney’s appearance in Allentown — that the working class whites who once dominated this great industrial center would back the Republican nominee.
Pennsylvania demographics suggested that the state was fair game for Republicans. Seniors are a key source of support for Romney, and the state has a higher percentage of voters over the age of 65, 15.6 percent, than the country as a whole (13.3 percent). Pennsylvania is substantially whiter, at 79.2 percent, than the rest of the nation (63.4 percent). And unemployment in Pennsylvania matches the national rate at 8.1 percent.
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/whats-wrong-with-pennsylvania/?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120924
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