Alan Novak: I would agree with that. You have an east-west divide here that clearly shows the parties realigning - or, at least, election results that are counterintuitive. Western Pennsylvania has always been Democratic, blue-collar. Montgomery County and the Philadelphia suburbs have been considered white-collar, more affluent, and therefore staples for Republicans. Now we have two different results.
Rooney: The other story that Democrats need to pay attention to is the 12 [Democratic counties that changed] partisan control. To me, as a Democrat, that's troubling. Moreover, we've seen our party lose ground in voter registration. Democrats still have the numbers, but the map is changing before our eyes. Those results are disconcerting.
Novak: I look at these 12 county courthouses, and in some, particularly in northeast Pennsylvania, I see a bit of a correction: They shifted from Republican to Democrat; now they've corrected back to Republican.
But what would concern me if I were giving advice to the president is a "blue-green" problem. The Obama administration, with its [Environmental Protection Agency] regulations and proposed cap-and-trade legislation, tilts very green in terms of environmental protection. That's being perceived as a problem for blue-collar workers and for classic industrial jobs, which are the type of jobs that are concentrated in Western Pennsylvania.
Rooney: Organized labor all over Pennsylvania, and particularly in the southwest, is paying attention. They know that if these EPA regulations are implemented the way they've been proposed, there will be profound job losses. So the president needs to balance the environmental concerns of his base with the need to provide well-paying jobs.
