Irish Echo editorial: A prescient primary?

Give it to President Bush for the Republicans and Sen. John Kerry for the Democrats. A no-brainer indeed.
But beyond the predictability of the outcome for both parties at the presidential tier, observers will be closely assessing the mood of all voters closely because Pennsylvania, the Keystone State, will be one of the key battlegrounds on election day in November.
The chances are that the overall national electoral map will not look all that different when polls close on Tuesday, Nov. 2.
But Pennsylvania is one of those states that could be too close to call. Al Gore won the state in 2000, but not by such a margin that would convince John Kerry to take a repeat result for granted.
The fact that Pennsylvania is one of a handful of states that could decide the presidential contest opens the door to Irish Americans, no matter what their party allegiance, to raise issues of common Irish-American concern before the candidates, not just in the next few days but in the full-blown campaign that will take us through the summer.
The Irish rank only second to Germans in Pennsylvania’s ethnic makeup. The Ancient Order of Hibernians is particularly active in the state. No reason at all then why Irish issues should not be made part of the emerging compact between voters and the various candidates from Philly to Pittsburgh and points in between.