Hillary in Philadelphia

It's too late for me to stay up and edit photos. I've got a long drive back home tomorrow beginning at 6:00 AM, so it might take even longer for me to put together a slideshow with photos from Hillary Clinton's celebration tonight in Philadelphia.

Enjoy the one photo I've had time to upload!



(Photo credit: Luke N. Vargas. 2008. All Rights Reserved)

Hungry and Uncomfortable in the Grand Ballroom

The upside: front and center 30 ft from the podium. Two projectors are casting faded pictures of CNN live over the two balconies here.

I am confident that I'm one of the only non-mainstream photographer here except for a sophomore working for the University of Pennsylvania's daily paper.

Exit polls are beginning to come in and are showing Clinton strong among those deciding their candidate in the last 10 days, an important indicator of who has the momentum tonight. I would equate tonight to the New Hampshire primary night event for Senator Clinton except that the ballroom here is empty apart from the press. I hear doors will open for the small number of supporters that will fit in here at 8:30....still a ways away....

The Streets of Philadelphia

I am safe and sound (and tired, but that's typical on Primary nights) in Philadelphia at last.

A block and a half from my hotel is a gathering of around one or two hundred Clinton and Obama supporters in front of Philadelphia's marvelous City Hall. Driving past the crowd earlier on the way to the hotel horns were honking and the city police had closed down the left lane of traffic to keep the crowd from overflowing into the street.

Updates coming, I'm in the lobby now preparing to head out and explore the city.

As far as photos, I will try to add photos to everything I'm publishing from my phone (such as this post) around 7 pm or after tonight's festivities wind down.

A Big Day Ahead in Pennsylvania

The way I see it, the election day story-lines for the Pennsylvania primary have already been written.

Eight polls attempting to put a finger on the forces at work in tomorrow's primary were released today. Seven of the eight polls put Hillary Clinton ahead of Barack Obama, and the one outlier only had Obama winning by 3%.

The official schedules of Clinton and Obama tomorrow evening reveal what might be the two campaigns' expectations. While Obama is holding a rally in a 13,000 seat stadium in Indiana with "heartland" rocker John Mellencamp, Senator Clinton is holding an "Election Night Celebration" at the Park Hyatt in downtown Philadelphia, an event I will be attending.

Is it wise to read into schedules like this and assume that the Obama campaign doesn't think the Senator will win tomorrow? Not entirely, but at the same time I can predict with 100% certainty that if Obama wins tomorrow he'll open his remarks with, "I wanted to celebrate this tremendous occasion with my friends here in the state of Indiana."

Why? Because the 2008 campaign is raging forward at breakneck pace and, from a tactical standpoint it makes no sense for Obama to stick around in Pennsylvania once the voting ends. There just isn't enough time this campaign season to wait around an extra day after the polls close...but some people still appreciate those who stick around anyway, whether it's Clinton or Obama.