Irish Catholics for O'BAMA!

Obama claims luck, blood, nomenclature of the Irish

by Sasha Issenberg

March 17, 2008

SCRANTON, Pa. -- It is hard to imagine a less friendly room than the one Barack Obama entered here Monday night: a tribal gathering of Irish-Catholic women with a dais full of Hillary Clinton supporters in a a place she claims as a hometown.

"He’s going to go right into the heart of Hillary country and the core of her demographic," Lackawanna County Commissioner Corey O'Brien, an Obama supporter, said hours before the bagpipers arrived at the Society of Irish Women’s St. Patrick's Day banquet.

O'Brien's description was based on exit polls and confirmed by the meager, isolated applause that welcomed Obama into the room. But in the august tradition of ethnic dinners, Obama didn’t make the demographic come to him as much as go to the demographic.

"My family story is familiar to Irish-Americans: a distant homeland, a journey across an ocean in search of opportunity, determination to grab hold of hope and the American dream," the half-Kenyan/half-Kansan man wearing the green tie said before reminding his crowd that St. Patrick was a former slave.

"Another reason why the story might be familiar is it turns out I have Irish heritage," Obama went on.

"Of course!" a woman blurted out.

"One of my earliest American ancestors came here from a tiny village in Ireland," Obama said. "It never hurts to be a little Irish when you’re running for the presidency."

He didn’t seem ready to stop at "a little Irish," pointing out that his campaign had produced green signs and lapel stickers that render his last name as "O'Bama." "I also want you to know Bah-RAACCHH is an old Celtic name," he continued. "I hopefully can earn the honor of the apostrophe in 'O'Bama.'"