Keystone Speaker

Here's the state of Pennsylvania: Clinton's lead has shrunk from 12 points to six in recent weeks and, according to a recent poll, is now holding steady at six. Many people believe that Clinton must win the state to remain a contender, and Rendell has even suggested she needs to win by a certain margin -- though that margin tends to vary depending on the day.

Rendell has plenty of opinions about what the campaign could do differently. He nags campaign adviser Howard Wolfson to put Clinton on "Charlie Rose." (All those Philadelphia progressives would love her!) For a while, he was nagging the campaign about this political analogy he says Clinton kept using, about the best way to boil a frog. He was worried she'd upset the animal-rights people.

"The frog is gooone," he notes with satisfaction.

Rendell describes himself as hardly an "important cog in the campaign," and not always successful with his advice, but the campaign listens, he says. He does his classic praise-then-qualify routine.

"They're very smart," he says, "and I don't mean to pat them on the back 'cause the campaign has certainly made mistakes, but this campaign listens to locals a lot better than . . . any presidential campaign I've been associated with."

Mistakes? Ah, glad you asked. The main criticism is one Rendell has already aired, about the campaign "having no contingency strategy" in case the Democratic fight continued past Super Tuesday. The rest are not so much criticisms as Rendellisms, the governor voicing his observations as they occur to him, like bubbles rising to the surface of a lake.

"They're a little obsessed about getting into three media markets a day," he says. Also, the staff tends to caucus a lot. Also, Bill Clinton is "now basically totally on positive message" (praise), which is "what I think he should've done from the beginning" (qualifier).

The motorcade arrives at the event, which is billed as "Solutions for the Pennsylvania Economy," and is taking place at King's College gymnasium. Rendell and Sen. Clinton go in, and there's the mandatory backstage schmoozing, and then Rendell does his Emcee Eddie routine.

"Hello Wilkes-Barre! I can't hear you!"

In many ways, Rendell's campaign style is the opposite of Clinton's. Where he is playful and impulsive and eager to please, she exudes a quiet discipline. Where he is transparent, she is thoughtful and policy-oriented. But today, either because Rendell's energy is infectious or because she is in friendly territory, close to her dad's home town of Scranton, Clinton seems relaxed and utterly in her element. She takes questions, she banters, she starts polling audience members about their college loan rates. She tells people to think of the race as a series of job interviews, at which point someone shouts, "You got the job!"

After the town hall, the senator and the governor disappear -- Clinton to do an interview, and Rendell because he is being buttonholed by a local mayor who wants several million in state money for a redevelopment project. "It's the only danger I have of going out around the state," Rendell says after he slides back into the car. "At all these rallies I usually get hit up for at least one thing, sometimes more."

The car idles and the minutes tick by and Rendell exudes restlessness while he waits for Clinton to finish her interview. He seems to need to be in constant movement, or if not movement, action, or if not action, conversation. Back when Rendell was mayor and helped revive a half-dead city by dint of his outsize personality, reporters used to write about how the mayor was always jiggling his knee.