If it weren’t so pathetic, it would be laughable. We finally had a Pennsylvania primary election that grabbed national attention and how did the people of Mercer County respond?

We had about 37 percent of our eligible voters turn out in Mercer County.

Thirty-seven percent! Just slightly over one-third of our voters took the time to go to the polls to help decide who might sit in the White House next year.

If your favorite sports teams were only winning 37 percent of the time, the fans would be extremely upset.

What could possibly have been more important for the other 63 percent?

The same 63 percent who will complain about the war in Iraq. The same 63 percent who will gripe about the gas prices at the pump. The same 63 percent who will scream about who gets elected in November.

With our country in the worst economic situation in decades thanks to the guy in the Oval Office, how could people still be apathetic? How could they not care enough to vote?

On a good note, my longtime friend Jeff Greenburg, county election director, felt that 37 percent was actually a record for the number of ballots cast in a primary. Now I’m really depressed.

Much of our area had a chance to vote for the Democrat who would run against long-time (much too long) Rep. Phil English in the fall. There were four good choices, yet when only 37 percent of the people vote, as little as 10 percent of the people could have decided which one of those candidates will be on the November ticket.

However, Kathy Dahlkemper prevailed in that race for the 3rd Congressional District by a big margin, pulling in about 45 percent of the votes here in the county as well as the district. Obviously, here it’s the “Year of the Woman.”

Hillary Clinton rocked the polls in the county, nailing almost 70 percent of the Democrat votes against Barack Obama. Overall Hillary won big in Pennsylvania by an approximate 55 to 45 percent margin.

The win was huge and should make party leaders think about which candidate is the most electable. Hillary has won most of the key big states against Barack, states that will go a long way to determine the next president in the fall election.

In fact, exit polls in Pennsylvania have said that people of the commonwealth would favor Republican John McCain over Obama, but pick Clinton over McCain. And that’s scary if you want to put a Democrat in the White House and change the state of affairs in this country.

Obviously even many GOPers are upset with the status quo in Washington, since in Pennsylvania Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul pulled in a nice chunk of votes even though McCain has the nomination wrapped up.

It sends a little message to the party about how they need to do things differently.