Chip,
As I mentioned, I have no qualms with PIT as a facility. It's the cream of the crop, and you are spot on with your statement that the PIT cachement area needs a few more million people to make it a viable O&D based hub.
That said, I do not believe the company line about making PIT the East/West hub. Were that the case, surely US would not have cut frequencies to SFO, LAX, SEA and so forth in the latest round of flight cutbacks. While I cannot speak for these flights during the week, I frequently fly to and from SFO, LAX, and SEA during the Thurs-Mon part of the week, and the existing flight were packed. This does not lead me to believe anything about PIT becoming an east/west hub; indeed, it leads me to believe that the second coming of CVG is not that far off. Quite honestly, if given the choice between having a CVG type facility or expanded competition, I'd rather pay lower fares and connect that continue to dole out sky-high fares to sit on an RJ direct.
As for the county, I live in Cranberry for a reason. I (and my tax dollars) will not be part and parcel to the county's effort to save jobs by encouraging failing companies (and, until very recently, US falls into this category) to continue to fail by providing infrastructure at the expense of the taxpayer. Further, as US will freely admit, while they might continue to create jobs in PIT, they will be of the much lesser paying variety at MDT--something that even the union politicos cannot be happy about.
Unless and until the cartel airlines, US included, are forced to operate as money making enterprises, the current spiral of uncertainty and taxpayer bailouts will continue.