Vote For Lynn Swann, The Pretty Candidate

Let’s delve into John Baer’s Daily News column about how Lynn Swann is taking it to the streets of every part of Pennsylvania in hopes of winning the governorship.

Baer’s column makes sure to point out all the wackiness that always seems to happen when a political candidate steps into any sort of uncontrolled situation. Unfortunately, Baer doesn’t report on any wackiness in Bucks County, but there are several choice moments chronicled when Swann steps out around 52nd and Market (we can only assume he picked up a bootleg Phillies hat while he was out there):

A vocal local rants as the bus slides curbside on 52nd on a steamy weekday morning. He snarls, waves his arms. But Swann aides give him a pamphlet, a pin and a T-shirt, and he ends up leading cheers: “I’ll sucker-punch you if you don’t vote for Lynn Swann!”

Swann’s deputy campaign manager, Randy Robinson, beams: “It’s a T-shirt conversion! We’re going after them one T-shirt at a time.”

Folks stop to meet Swann, many happy to do so. He’s his dapper self in a loose-fitting, soft-collared sport shirt, well-tailored dress slacks. And he’s good at this. A woman outside the West Philly Y says, “At least we’d have a good-looking governor.”

This sounds about right, and Swann — like Ed Rendell, in many ways, actually — is incredibly polished and even when he doesn’t give you a straight answer you sometimes feel like he actually answered the question. (This is probably the best quality a politician can have.)

Not everyone in West Philly was happy with Swann’s stop on 52nd Street. Some people felt, well, he needed to take that shit back to Pittsburgh:

It’s not unanimous. A dour-faced young man mumbles, “Lynn Swann, eh? You need to take that s— back to Pittsburgh.” And Cecilia Elliot, a cashier and mother of three, questions politician visits during election seasons: “What they come here for now? Let me go up to my black brothers and sisters? He’s been black!”

Clearly, Ms. Eliot needs a Lynn Swann t-shirt.

John Baer | Swann on offense in Ed’s territory [Daily News]