Obama-Biden Dine in Hamilton, Indiana

(Photo by Cathie Rowand of The Journal Gazette)
Barack Obama and Joe Biden made a stop for dinner this evening at the Pier 32 restaurant on Indiana 1 on Hamilton Lake. According to the Journal Gazette, Obama bounded off of his campaign bus at 5:45 p.m., shouting to his running mate, "Biden! Let's get something to eat!" His call was met with applause from boaters in bikinis and sunglasses gathered in the parking lot, on the docks, in the landscaping and along the road.

How does Terry McAuliffe REALLY feel?

Not surprisingly, depending on from where and whom you get your news, you likely get a variety of viewpoints. Take Terry McAuliffe for example. In today's Journal Gazette, he discusses the importance of Fort Wayne and the surrounding areas to the Clinton camp.

Benjamin Lanka of The Journal Gazette reports:

Terry McAuliffe, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign chairman, made it quite clear the importance of northeast Indiana voter turnout for his candidate during his stop last week.

McAuliffe was in town to open Clinton’s local campaign office on Fairfield Avenue. He said it is vital for the party to have a fighter win the nomination, saying Vice President Al Gore should have won easily in 2000, but Democrats didn’t fight hard enough. He also said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., should have won in 2004 but didn’t respond quickly enough to criticism about his military record.

He said Clinton will be that fighter in the fall election, but it will be important for Hoosiers to support her this May. He said about 20 percent of the state’s population gets Chicago television – which he called Obama’s networks, as Sen. Barack Obama hails from Illinois. To balance that out, he said other areas of the state, including Fort Wayne and surrounding areas will need to come out strongly for Clinton.

However, those of us listening to The Ed Schultz Show on Air America on Monday afternoon received a completely different message from Mr.McAuliffe. McAuliffe, en route to the Summit City to open the local Clinton campaign office after working his way up the state, made some rather disparaging remarks about our part of the world.

Ed Schultz asked him if he really thought Hillary Clinton could still win at this point, with the math being what it is and all. McAuliffe replied "Ed, I've been driving through Indiana all morning. I would NOT be sitting here in a McDonalds off of I-69, in Fort Wayne of all places, eating a filet-o-fish sandwich if I didn't believe she could win".

Interpret that however you wish, but what I took away from it was that it was a burden for him to be here. Much in the same manner as the Clinton campaign dismissed the importance of all of the 'little states that don't matter" a while back. Mr.McAuliffe, welcome to our small corner of a "little state" that all of a sudden seems to matter. Just for the record, although we ARE forced to endure mainly conservative talk radio on our radios, we do get satellite radio here in podunk as well. . .