Barack Obama hit the bowling lanes and walked the factory floor, hoisted the local brew and even nursed a calf as he introduced himself over the weekend to the working-class residents of hardscrabble towns in southern Pennsylvania.
In the first days of a bus tour that marks the opening of Obama’s campaign for Pennsylvania’s April 22 primary, a candidate who has done best among the young, the well-educated and African-Americans devoted much of his time to blue-collar America.
There was Johnstown Wire Technologies, which supplies wire used in Slinkies, where the Illinois Democratic senator walked among giant coils of cable. And Pleasant Valley Lanes in Altoona, where he exchanged his black oxfords for a pair of size 13 1/2 blue-and-white Velcro bowling shoes.
At Altoona’s Original Texas Hot Dogs, where nothing costs more than $2.15, Obama shoved a Texas dog into his mouth. And at Penn State University’s research barns, he nursed a calf with an oversized baby bottle.
“Come on, buddy,” he coaxed as his charge slurped.