Hillary in Athens, OH while Indiana Berned

While Hoosiers were voting yesterday, Hillary was in southeastern Ohio (Appalachia), courting votes in coal country. 

Athens County was her weakest Ohio County in the March 15th open primary. She won the state overall by 14 points but lost Athens County by 23 points, largely due to the outsized Ohio University vote:

So her choice of Athens might be seen as an appeal to Sanders’ young, collegiate demographic, but the semester actually ended a couple of weeks ago, and her speech as it turned out hit themes that concern Appalachian coal country rather than free college, student debt relief and the like. Athens then would be just a nice liberal venue to convince economically beaten down coal workers that the Democratic Party has their backs.

Of course, Trump is making nativist, populist pitches on that score as is Sanders. A sign erected on Route 33 heading into Athens reflects that:

Clinton has an effective ally on these issues in Sen. Sherrod Brown, who introduced her at the rally. I wasn’t able to get into the venue, but was well-positioned to say hi to the senator as he arrived:

Brown above refers to the Bill Clinton bus tour through Ohio in 1992 with Hillary and Al and Tipper. The woman saying “no fracking!” was a Sanders protester. She kept going on about Clinton “selling fracking to the world” and “all the people she’s killed.” She also held a sign “Bernie or bust, write-in if we must.”

Brown’s introduction invoked Lyndon Johnson’s visit to the area and the unfinished business of LBJ’s Great Society.

Some Sanders protesters:

The blue sticker on the sign in the center says “Clinton for Prison 2016,” a point of concordance with political revolutionaries on the left and right. Also note the “Jill before Hill” sign, Jill Stein being the Green Party candidate.

“If I am fortunate enough to be at the White House again, some Jackie O’s will be there too!”