Thomas Dworzak

Thomas Dworzak has been amassing a collection of odd products that have come to symbolize the Presidential campaign. Here is a gallery of extraordinary objects.

Joe Biden’s childhood home is not too big, not too small, a nondescript home on a tree-lined street. Normal.

The Steamtown Marathon was being run Sunday. The finish line is right in downtown Scranton.

Scranton felt a little European, since it has fairly old buildings, a big hotel and people walking around, something you don’t see too much in America. There is nothing very spectacular in Scranton, nothing very horrible either. It is a middle-ground place, a nice little town.

It’s a little predictable to watch the teleprompter at work. You look down and read “we will rise again.” A moment later, Joe Biden says “we will rise again.” It isn't always so smooth – the candidate sticks an extra pronoun into the stump speech, he gets ahead of the machine and the staffers have to scramble to catch up – but it is hypnotic.

It was somehow touching to see Hillary there. Though she may have no issue with McCain, she must with Obama and Biden, since they are the ticket and she’s not. Still, she was cheerful. Maybe politicians just get over this.

Biden looked the part of a charming politician.

At the Biden rally, everyone was trying to be nice, to be embracing. This was not the case at the Palin rally in the day before, in Johnstown. When I went to take this picture, I thought that the woman would object. You would think she knew it was weird, but no, she was proud.