






































 ó 


In the COMIVIOI\!VtlEALTH 
Gerard J. Fitzpatrick, Editor 

My predecessor as editor of COMMONVvEALTH/ Dr. Thomas ]. 
Baldino, introduced volume 10 with the aphorism "all good things come 
to those who wait," for it had been 14 months since the journal's last 
publication. Alas, volume 11 has taken even longer to appear. Three 
rt'asons explain the delay. First, we received an unusually small number 
()f submissions. Second, those submissions were slow in corning. Third, 
we had a demanding group of anonymous referees, many with national 
reputations in their fields, who rejected most of the submissions. Thus, 
the cloud has a silver lining. Getting published in COMMONWEALTH 
is not easy and the quality of those pieces that do appear is high, as can 
be seen in the five articles comprising this issue. 

In the lead article, Dr. William F. Byrne explores the political and aes­
thetic significance of some of the less known writings of the German 
political philosopher Friederich Nietzsche concerning the composer Ri­
chard \Vagner. Dr. Byrne believes Nietzsche rejected Wagnerian operas 
as "romantic" diversions from the pursuit of a more genuine human ex­
i~lence, a failing Nielzsche regalded as sylnplomalic of Ulollt:~rHily. Al­
though he focuses on nineteenth century political thought, Dr. Byrne 
makes us think about the interplay among art, morality, and politics in 
nur time as well. 

Dr. Donald W. Beachler examines the difficulties labor unions faced 
in lrying Lo make Al Gore presidenlin 2000. WeakelLed loyally all the 
part of blue-collar voters to the Democratic Party explains much of the 
erosion of the New Deal realignment during the past several decades. 
Ur. Beachler shows how insufficient turnout by this once stalwart com­
ponent of Franklin Roosevelt's famous Democratic coalition, along with 
the idiosyncrasies of the Electoral College system, conspired to bar the 
door of the White House to Vice President Gore. 

While politicians' speeches are often dismissed as calculated oppor­
tunism at best and mere bombast at worst, Dr. Daniel DiLeo shows that 
there can be more to political rhetoric than meets the eye. By applying a 
sophisticated form of content analysis to gubernatorial state-of-the-state 
speeches, Dr. DiLeo reveals the degree of "realism" with which gover­
nors speak. He also considers how these speeches are affected by gover­
nors' party affiliation and political experience, state economic develop­
ment, public opinion, and divided government. 



Our two articles on Pennsylvania politics concern the role of race in 
the electoral process. Both find that race matters but in ways more com­
plex than expected. Dr. April Gresham and Dr. Robert Maranto analyze 
the degree to which white voters in Permsylvania's conservative Lehigh 
Vrll1("y woulci support an African-American presidential candidate, spe­
cifically retired Army general Colin Powell. They find such support to 
be contingent upon the voters' attitudes toward issues like affirmative 
action, immigration, and NAFTA, as well as concepts like 
authoritarianism and populism. 

Dr. Jeffrey Kraus portrays Philadelphia as having been really two cit­
ies with regard to the mayoral election of 1999. The Democratic nomi­
nee, an African-American with twenty years of governmental experience, 
could only narrowly defeat his untested white Republican rival in Llti:::. 
overwhelmingly Democratic city. Dr. Kraus finds that while the candi­
dates themselves concentrated on issues rather than race, voters sharply 
divided along racial lines, thereby rendering hollow Fhiladelphia's sou­
briquet as the "City of Brotherly Love." 

Let me close with three matters. First, I urge our readers to submit 
manuscripts to COMMONWEALTH for review and to persuade their 
colleagues to do so as well. With a larger number of manuscripts in the 
pipeline, we will be able to publish the journal more regularly and with 
more articles per issue. As I have noted, getting published in COM­
MONWEALTH is a challenge and success ought to be deemed an ac­
knowledgment of the strength of one's scholarship. 

Second, I believe COMMONWEALTH is a quality journal in part be­
cause we use first-rate referees. WiLhoul lheir ~ervice, not unly wuuld 
our articles not be as strong as they are, but production of an issue would 
not even be possible. I therefore take this opportunity to express my 
appreciation to the ten referees whose skill and selflessness helped to 
produce this volume. Working with these talented people truly has been 
ajoy for me. 

Finally, I wish to thank Tom Baldino for his support and guidance. By 
the time he stepped down as editor of COMMONWEALTH in 2000, Tom 
had devuted more than a decade of his life to our journal, including five 
years as its editor-in-chief. When he asked me to take the editorial reins, 
I was flattered - and terrified. My limited knowledge of the editorial 
process came from my experience as an author; I knew nothing about 
being an editor. All that I have learned lowe to Tom. He patiently toler­
ated and expertly answered a never-ending flow of questions from me. 
In short, credit Torn for the strengths of this issue and blame me for any 
blemishes. 


