Scream Without Raising Your Voice
by ChrisJune 30th, 2005 9:40 am
Samantha, from PA Liberal (a very good site, by the way), left an interesting comment in the previous entry which follows a line of reasoning I’ve heard quite a bit recently. The basic argument is that Casey will be a particularly effective candidate against Santorum because his positons on abortion, gun control and stem cell research are very close to Santorum’s thus nulifying them as an issue. This may or may not be a realistic expectation, and I’m not the person to look to for effective political strategy so I won’t try to argue it one way or the other. My concern, however, is that these positions will have a negative impact on turnout from the Democratic base in an election where we will need all of the electricity and enthusiasm we can muster if we to have any hope of defeating Santorum. I want to see a vigorous Democratic primary fight, but I’m finding that I’m very much in the minority in that view.
June 30th, 2005 at 9:55 am
I guess Im sitting in the minority with you. That so called “strategy” of getting a candidate who is so like the opposing party - that is what is alienating voters in the first place. I would poke my own eyes out before I would vote for a anti-choice candidate even if he was guarenteed to beat a Rebuplican. This is another example of Democrats trying to convince women to vote against their own interests just to elect a candidate then not meeting any of the needs of the women - and calling us whiners if we complain. You want to know why Bush had such a high turnout fro women - it’s because of years of being told that eventually the Dems would take care of us the way we have always taken care of them. Unforntualy for Dems, we women are not as stupid as the Moral Majority.
June 30th, 2005 at 10:21 am
I nominate you for best use of a U2 lyric in a blog posting. Hey, I’m with you. The more competition, in many regards, the better. I don’t necessarily have a big problem with Casey, other than the fact that he hasn’t opened his mouth and he thinks he’s just going to coast right through the primary. I’m thinking we shouldn’t let that happen.
June 30th, 2005 at 10:43 am
Bush only had a high turnout for women, because he played the values card. Also most of those women were also part of the family values, evangelical portion of his base. More women still voted Democratic than they did Republican. Bush and his cronies are good politicians. How are the Democrats getting women to vote against their self-interest.
Well if you look at Casey and how voted for him, you all would see that a lot and I do mean a lot of Democrats voted for him, and so did a vast majority of Republicans. Casey’s positions on certain issues doesn’t make him any less of a Democrat. We will just have to wait til the primaries.
Also “The Girl” you are not in the minority. A lot of Democrats dont’ appreciate picking someone like the opposition. But Casey is nowhere near Santorum. Santorum is off the cliff and a step over when it comes to conservatism. No one can match Santorum on all issues. So to say, or even insinuate that Casey is like Santorum would be ignorant.
June 30th, 2005 at 12:00 pm
He did indeed have a very successful run for Auditor General, winning more votes than anybody else in Pennsylvania history. I would say that most voters probably evaluate different positions when choosing a Senator as opposed to an Auditor General.
June 30th, 2005 at 2:19 pm
I wouldn’t be too worried about Democratic turnout. If there’s even a hint that Rendell (at the top of the ticket) is vulnerable - which he may be - his turnout machine will go into overdrive to get anyone with a D after their name to get out an vote. Casey can then capitalize by not only getting all of the Democratic Rendell voters, who would rather chew glass than vote for Santorum, but also the so-called “Reagan Democrats” from Erie, the T and NE PA, who either think they’re voting for Bob Casey Sr. or are informed enough to know that they agree with Jr. on most issues.
June 30th, 2005 at 2:28 pm
I agree Chris, but the thing is, people have had it with Santorum. I know that is not a guaranteed victory because people despise Santorum, but it does help.
I don’t think anyone is going to beat Rendell. I saw a poll on PoliticsPA.com a few months back and the closet person to Rendell was Swann. Swann was behind 37%. Things will change though.
June 30th, 2005 at 2:40 pm
My take on all this, as a moderate Republican with NO intention of voting for Santorum, is this. To beat Santorum, Democrats need to hammer home how scary a lot of Santorum’s positons are on social issues (ie, abortion, gay marriage etc).
I’m not saying Casey’s views on social issues are identical, BUT if they’re even similar, it’s sort of negating the one area where Santorum needs to be really hammered.
If social issues are off the table due to too many people feeling there’s no difference between the two candidates, other factors, such as Santorum’s seniority and what not, come into play.
This presents a problem because, and i’m gonna get crucified here for saying this, but when Santorum isn’t talking about abortion and gay marriage and other similar issues, not only does he not come off as scary, he can in some cases come off as somewhat affable and likeable.
My fiance’s best friend works with at-risk kids in SW Philly, and is as liberal as they come. She did,however, deal with Santorum and his Chief-of-Staff on something a few years ago and while she REALLY wanted to hate him, she came away kind of impressed with his grasp of what they were talking about and his interest in it. It was the kind of thing he would’ve had to really have been interested in, she said there was no way he was faking it or just spewing out something an aide told him five minutes earlier. Now, there’s no way in hell she’ll vote for the guy and she still finds him repugnant in a lot of ways, but hopefully you get the point.
June 30th, 2005 at 3:11 pm
Dan, granted this was before the “man/dog” comment, and before the whole controversy over the people of Penn Hills paying for Santorum’s kids to do cyber-school in Virginia, but remember that in 2000, Al Gore won PA, but Santorum also won. So, hard as it is to imagine, people must’ve split their tickets and voted for Gore and Santorum.
Feel free to insert the “Ron Klink was as exciting as a bowl of overcooked pasta” comment right now, but Casey isn’t exactly awe-inspiring either.
June 30th, 2005 at 3:34 pm
Jeff, I agree on your assessment of Santorum. He’s a very skilled and very dangerous politician and beating him will be no small task, even if it makes our heads spin to think that anybody would vote for the guy.
July 1st, 2005 at 1:11 pm
Santorum is a skilled politician.
We have been hammering away at Santorum and his comments and some of his actions as well, like passing the dead fetus around. Yea…Santorum just looks like a jerk though. He is very affable. He does get away with a lot of things though. He does not even live in PA. He lives in VA. He is Virginia’s 3rd de facto Senator.