So Many People, So Many People Pass

In what is quickly becoming a daily event at Running Down a Dream, I offer my congratulations to Mr. Jeremy Masten for correctly naming "Run" by Snow Patrol as the Wednesday Song of the Day. That's four days in a row, folks. It seems that Jeremy's current run is inversely related to the success of the Rangers (on a current 6 game losing streak). Everyone, for the good of the Rangers, I'm begging you to dethrone Mr. Masten.

It's not often that a national newspaper files a feature story with the dateline "Kokomo, Indiana", but with the never-ending slog that is the current Democratic nomination process, that has changed. My Dad grew up in Tipton, Indiana, which is about 20 miles southeast of Kokomo, and other than possessing the only "sitdown" McDonald's in America, there is nothing remarkable about the city.

With that said, it these "typical" American cities and towns that hold a tremendous amount of responsibility for determining the identity of the Democratic nominee this fall.

As the Democratic presidential hopefuls turned to Indiana as a new battleground in the fight for the nomination, they find themselves facing a different audience in places like Kokomo, a blue-collar city in the middle of endless expanses of farms north of Indianapolis. In some ways, these are voters not so unlike those in other Rust Belt states, like Pennsylvania, but with an added dose of nostalgia and a practical, Midwestern sensibility.

“We are manufacturing workers, farmers, beer drinkers, gun owners, pickup drivers,” said Karen Lasley, 64, who was volunteering on Wednesday morning in Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s field office in Kokomo (one of 28 Mrs. Clinton has opened around the state along with Senator Barack Obama’s 22, including one just down the street). “We are full of pride for this country.”

Politically, though, Indiana is by no means monolithic: its terrain is more of a quilt, as elaborate as its tangled time-zone map, complicating matters for the campaigns as they decide where to devote time and money.

"For Indiana Voters, Talk of Change May Fall Flat" by Monica Davey in the New York Times.