Report: 59 Philadelphia Voting Wards Showed Absolutely No Votes for Mitt Romney

The picture tells the story.
(Photo from Fox News)

In a fitting epitaph to the recent presidential election, a report in philly.com, the online editon of the Philadelphia Inquirer, notes that Mitt Romney was unanimously rejected in certain Philadelphia voting wards. We're talking zero votes for the man from Massachusetts. Nada. Absolutely nothing. Zip.

You could characterize this as the Obama campaign pitching a shutout, or Romney's campaign repeatedly swinging and missing. However, when the vote count is 19,605 to zero, well, what else can one say? We can reasonably suppose the Romney-Ryan message died a hard death in the predominantly African-American, predominantly 47 percenter wards cited in the story.

Unsurprisingly, the political Dracula known as "voter fraud" stuck its hand out from the political grave. According to the story,

Steve Miskin, a spokesman for Republicans in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, brought up his party's voter-identification initiative - which was held off for this election - and said "We believe we need to continue ensuring the integrity of the ballot."

Some people just don't get it.

Philadelphia Newspapers to Give Away Android to New Digital Subscribers

Philadelphia, which is more of a high-tech area than many realize, will become the site of an interesting experiment in newspaper subscription marketing.

According to an AP story picked up by the San Jose Mercury News, the City of Brotherly Love's two major dailies will throw in a free Android tablet to paid digital subscribers. The web-based digital editions currently cost $155 per year for a subscription. Unsurprisingly, the initiative is aiming at the proverbial "young professional" market. While the reasoning is understandable, the newspapers' marketing teams might consider the number of "older professionals" who either own or are planning to purchase a tablet. These are people who are also accustomed to paying for a subscription and have probably read either or both newspapers over many years.

There are other moving parts to the story, such as the emergence of web-based applications "which can work on any device with a browser. The Financial Times launched a Web app last month," the AP story noted.

The two Philadelphia dailies were purchased in September, 2010 by a collection of hedge funds and creditors in a bankruptcy sale. The image, from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings Project, shows the Inquirer Building (also known as the Elverson Building). It is included in the National Register of Historic Places.