IMO, street money may have caused Sen. Obama to lose the PA primary by double digits. In a comment in one of the dairies, I posited that when new politics meet old politics there need to be a compromise. Philly is an old machine town with ward leaders who will ferociously assist their candidate to get out the votes, but they need what is called "street money" to help defray costs for lunch, gas and other incidental expenses.

While watching the Chris Matthews show, which I do very infrequently these days, there were two radio talk show hosts, one black and one white who agreed that street money could have helped Sen. Obama win the primary or at least held Hillary's win to a smaller margin. My sense is that Sen. Clinton paid "street money" although it was not explicitly stated.

Sen. Obama refused to pay street money in South Carolina and it did not hurt him there, but Philly is a different city. Obama earned 65% of the vote in the city, but although turnout was good there, it was not a record. The pundits said Obama needed at least 70% of the black vote, plus he needed to win the Philly suburbs, but he also failed to do that.

Street money is perfectly legal. Some people may feel that it is used to buy votes or that it opened the door to corruption, but when people are entrenched in a system you can't pull the rug immediately; it has to be gradual. Many of these people are unemployed and they saw that the Obama campaigned is a fund raising juggernaut. The saw him spend millions of dollars on TV and radio ads that now may have been arguably considered wasted. One person said that the Obama volunteers brought dishes to campaign headquarters rather than expecting the campaign to buy them food. That is some of his supporters, others may not be able to afford it. According to CNN exit polls he won people who earned under 15K and over 200K, and there we have the dichotomy.

Sen. Obama's campaign has to be able to bring both groups of supporters together and work with them from where they are. His campaign has to be able to balance both the new and old going forward if he is to achieve his goal if he becomes the nominee.