The Philadelphia 76ers stunned the Detroit Pistons in their playoff opener, the Phillies are just 2½ games out of first place, and both the Flyers and Penguins are competing for the Stanley Cup.

But despite these A-list opportunities all concentrated in the Keystone State (not to mention the fact that the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is there), Tuesday’s hottest ticket is a ringside seat for Hillary Clinton vs. Barack Obama: The Pennsylvania Smackdown.

The first primary after an excruciating six-week, news-junkie hiatus temporarily takes the stalled race away from the omnipresent, omniscient political pollsters, pundits and pontificators and places it back in the hands of the rightful owners — the voters. At least for the day, anyway.

A keystone is the central, topmost, wedge-shaped stone in an arch, which holds all the other stones in place. And although the name “Keystone State” cannot be traced to a single source, headlines in the 1800s referred to Pennsylvania as “the keystone in the democratic arch” for its central position among the original 13 colonies.

Another “keystone” dates back to independence. Pennsylvania’s eight representatives split 4-4 on independence until, so the story goes, John Morton’s deciding “keystone” vote for independence tipped the balance.

That bit of history aside, and despite this year’s central and much-anticipated role in the Democratic nominating process, there is little hope or expectation that Pennsylvania’s results will provide any such dramatic certitude, clarity or structure to the over-cost, over-schedule presidential archway that Democrats are struggling to finish.

Pennsylvania is a huge state with incredibly diverse constituencies, so trying to synthesize what its people are thinking at any one time is almost impossible.

Philadelphia; its suburbs; the Mainline; Pittsburgh; the old industrial cities of Scranton and Allentown; countless small towns scattered over the 400 miles between Philadelphia and the shores of Lake Erie — just about any kind of constituency that can be found anywhere else in the country also resides in Pennsylvania somewhere. 

There will be a winner and a loser, but good luck trying to figure out what the unified “voter message” is after the dust settles. I am sure the Wednesday-morning pundits will be out in full force to help us out.

The last few weeks have been very confusing. While Obama has raised a ton of dough and outspent Clinton 2-to-1, Clinton has closed the gap in those national, generic tracking polls.

Still ailing from the Rev. Wright saga, the fallout from suggesting that “bitter” people “cling” to God and guns, and from an uninspiring debate performance, everyone seems to have ruled out an Obama victory in Pennsylvania, with all the talk centered on what Clinton’s margin of victory will be and how she will define a “blowout.”

Although I am not in the predicting business, I get very nervous when everyone is on the same page on these matters. This cycle has provided plenty of surprises, and I expect we may see a few more before it’s over.

Pennsylvania is now arguably getting more national political attention than at any time since Ronald Reagan picked liberal Sen. Richard Schweiker (R-Pa.) as his running mate or Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton rebuffed pro-life Gov. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) at the 1992 convention. The exclusive six-week buildup has poured an impressive volume of campaign cash into every media market in the state.

The fine folks in Michigan and Florida should be kicking themselves for getting all jiggy with that case of Iowa/New Hampshire envy they contracted late last year.

In their effort to jump line in front of Iowa and New Hampshire, not only did they jeopardize their delegations’ seating in Denver, but they also left a big gap on the primary schedule, allowing Pennsylvania to climb up on the pedestal all by itself.

At least for one day — this is the greatest show on earth.

You can reach Jim Mills at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it