Of BoBos, Bubbas and Custard

I don't really have an excuse for not posting, though I have been involved in a discussion of the recent primary election HERE and HERE and mentioned HERE. The Angry Drunk Bureaucrat (TADB) contends that Bill Peduto's support derives mainly from the BoBos (or the Custard Class) and the "Revolutionaries" while Lamb has more "New-Old Guard" support and, thus, Lamb would have won in a two-way between himself and Peduto. Others have repeatedly pointed out that Peduto came in second while Lamb came in third and that Peduto won more districts than Lamb with less money.

Since TADB's main argument seems to be that Peduto is a "Leftist" and his appeal is "elitist" and being that I have yet to see any hard evidence given for these claims, I am going to venture an opinion of my own as to Bill Peduto's future chances for becoming mayor of Pittsburgh that is based PURELY ON ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE AND OPINION too. [snark]

Subject of said anecdote is an 89 year-old near life-long resident of the South Side and a solid Democrat who was active in local politics in her day. A first generation Russian-American, non college-educated woman who's deceased husband was a foreman at US Steel. (Have I sufficiently described her as a NON BoBo, NON elitist who knows better to ask what flavor of custard is in her donut at the local bakery/Iggle?)

Let's call this woman "Bubba." As may be deduced from the above description, Bubba voted for Bob "He's been to my house" O'Connor. Let's take this a step further and note that Bubba has a granddaughter who was solidly for Peduto. While said granddaughter won commitments from four out of five family members to vote for Peduto, any appeal to Bubba was met with, "You, know better. O'Connor's going to win," and "I like him, I know him, he's been to my house."

Flash-forward to the day after the election and the following conversation:

Bubba: Did you see O'Connor's acceptance speech?

Granddaughter: Uh-uh.

Bubba: I was so disappointed. He sounded stupid. He kept saying...he said three...times, "We're going to turn this city around." He never says how.

Granddaughter: Uh-uh. Did you see Peduto's speech last night?

Bubba: You know I voted for O'Connor, but Peduto's speech was brilliant. He's a brilliant man. He was so eloquent. Mark my words, in four years, he'll be mayor. They were saying such nice things about him on the TV too. In four years from now -- if I'm still here -- I would vote for him.

What does this all mean? It's anecdotal, so, maybe nothing. But if TADB can contend that Bill can only appeal to BoBos than I can contend that when your average Pittsburgher actually gets a chance to really listen to Bill, they like what they hear. And, Michael Lamb? Well, he never came up in the conversation -- it was about the future of this city.