His Kind of Town

Anyone who has ever stayed three nights in Scranton qualifies for hometown consideration. At Pat McMullen's bar, they have fun with this. The parents of Emmy-winning actor Jeremy Piven are from Scranton. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's wife. Judy McGrath, the MTV chief executive, is from Scranton. And Robert Reich, the former labor secretary. Let's not forget former Syracuse basketball star Gerry McNamara, a Scranton favorite. And the writer William Kotzwinkle, who collaborated on the novelization of "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" -- he's a Scranton kid.

"Everybody's from Scranton," says Pat Sweeney, one of McMullen's bartenders, who happens to be off-duty this night. A good thing for him. This is an especially raucous night, as the Cowboys-Eagles game on "Monday Night Football" is airing on all TV sets. And strangely enough, virtually the entire crew of regulars is rooting for the Cowboys and not Pennsylvania's own team. What's that about?

Bars in general, and Irish bars particularly in this town, are the political trash-talking equivalent of the barbershop. Nothing is off limits in the bar, especially insulting Sarah Palin.

"If she loses, she's in Playboy a month later," says Sweeney dismissively. Seriously, though. "Can she run the country? Maybe," Sweeney continues, "but I'm going to go with Joe Biden. He's got more experience."

McMullen's is adorned with miniature helmets, political posters from the Kennedy era, sports jerseys, photos of notables, including a signed one from Biden. The ceiling is covered with vinyl placards containing messages like this one from Henny Youngman: "When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading." As the night was winding down, Sweeney yelled out: "Hey, Joe Biden called! Everybody gets a free drink." To which the regulars heartily cheered. It was a setup for his punch line: "Sarah called, too. Everybody gets a free photo shoot!"

Chris Doherty likes jokes and guffaws as well as the next man. But he is also the mayor of a city that needs help. For him, this election is utterly serious.

"Cities like Scranton do not have the money to pay for all these infrastructure bills we have to pay." Street pavement, bridge replacement, water lines, making an older Northeastern city attractive so that it can compete for business with the newer Southwestern cities and remain vital. "We need the federal government to play a role in our lives," he says. "Republicans don't believe that. Democrats do."

He needs Barack Obama to win, but he worries. He has told Obama's staff that the candidate needs to do more retail campaigning here, not closed events like the one at the area glass factory recently. "He needs to be out."

Joe Pusateri, who works for a Wise potato chip distributor -- "I deliver chips" -- has a different view of the electorate here and a different feel for this election. "I think Obama's gonna win. Honest to God. Why would I lie? I'm not gonna lie."

When he is not delivering chips, he works for the Arena Football 2 league. Being around football, he says, has helped him to see equality better. "It's about time we had change in the country -- that we look at each other as Americans. Not black, white, Asian," he said. "We're all Americans. That's what we are. When 9/11 happened, all folk died. Right?"

He had just finished a delivery at Hank's Hoagies. He called Obama a fresh face, an educated man, somebody special. "This guy is not off the streets." And he is concerned, quite frankly, that McCain is "getting up there in age."

So he's going to vote for Obama then?

Joe Pusateri paused for a few seconds. No, he wasn't quite prepared to go that far.

"It's up in the air," he says. "I can't lie."