Obama in Western PA: the 'burg

A day or two before the bus tour was scheduled to start, U.S. Senator Bob Casey, Jr. told the campaign he was going to endorse Obama. After Casey made his endorsement speech in Pittsburgh, suddenly the tour became a double act, as Casey came along.

Then they headed to Hempfield Area High School (home of the Spartans, the first high school team I saw play) for the Greensburg town meeting.
To get there from Pittsburgh his car probably took the same exit off Route 30 I did when I lived in Hempfield. I would have been able to see the car from the house where I grew up. I don't know how to explain it but there's some mystery of place that's engaged here. I know so much about that place, and experienced so much there, that this means something to me.


And at Hempfield he encountered a type I remember all too well from the local bar culture--the very educated crank. He took a question from a man who introduced himself as a PhD in Economics (a discipline that churns out cranks by the hundreds.) Who then asked Obama what he was going to do about the penny.
"The penny?" Obama repeated.

Yes, the obsolete penny--and the dollar bill--what about getting rid of that, too, and starting with the two dollar bill?

"The two dollar bill?"

Yeah, and another thing, what about island prisons for sex offenders?

I think maybe that photo with his finger on his eyebrow was taken about then.

Obama dealt with him better than I might have at the Court Jester bar, or Mr. Toad's. He said since Lincoln was on the penny, and Lincoln was an important guy in Illinois, he'd have to find another currency to put Lincoln on before he could get rid of the penny.