Posted on 08/24/2006 10:28:08 AM PDT by winner3000
JANESVILLE, Pa.--Until recently, Bob Casey Jr.'s strategy for unseating Republican Sen. Rick Santorum had been working so well that Mr. Casey could behave like the incumbent. Taking advantage of a double-digit lead in the polls, this son of a popular former two-term governor was coasting toward November on the heralded family name. He could remain mum or studiously vague about his actual positions. He could refuse to debate. And he could hide behind handlers who carefully stage-managed his appearances (before friendly audiences) and even more carefully shielded him from media outlets (like this one). It was a smart strategy for Mr. Casey, who is an underwhelming campaigner. But its viability is now being tested. The latest polls show the race tightening. An independent Quinnipiac University survey released on Aug. 15 had Mr. Casey ahead 48% to 42% among likely voters. The same poll showed him with a 52% to 34% lead in late June. A further concern for the challenger is that his negatives among likely voters have risen as he's allowed the senator to define him. Which might explain why Mr. Casey has begun to emerge from his shell.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
No kidding? Not a bad place if I must say so myself. Good experience?
Excellent - good professors(computer science).
A chemical engineering professor from Nova also teaches a high-school level chem class for homeschoolers that my daughter took a year back. Good guy.
Good...I'm in the administration there...glad you had a good experience.
Keep up the good work!
Its been interesting...we have a new president who is a nice guy but has no administerative experience and no clue what he's doing...never a good combination in a leader...
unless he has a few good, trusted assistants who can bring him up to speed ... otherwise you have a rudderless ship.
yeah well he doesn;t and the cleansing of the old guard will begin soon...i fear we're going to have a rough few years...
Someone had to post it - may as well be me.
That was awesome. Thanks. Made my day.
Is he a conservative Catholic or is he trying a "new direction" ?
He's certainly not a conservative catholic but he has NO direction...as you said, a rudderless ship...
coming from NOT a Pennsylvanian ... I've never really belieeved that Santorum would lose. Casey has the name advantage and cuts into those Dems who are social conservatives (both of them!) but Santorum REALLY knows how to campaign and by mid-October, that's what counts.
Help me here .. my memory is that Santorum won his first race without any significant backing from the GOP organizations? Like it was a sleeper race ?
A theatre major - wow, who ever thought that would uniquely qualify someone for the job ? They could at least have looked for someone whose contacts would come up big for endowment contributions.
You know what that could be I don't really recall but that's worth looking into...I'll hunt around a little bit and see what I can find. I'm with you...I never really thought he would lose. He's just a very personable guy...the kinda guy who when he walks into a room, everybody knows it. Commanding but not dominating presence. The commercials he's been doing of him talking are good moves...they play to his greatest strength which is his likability.
You're tellin me...but they wanted a priest for the job and he was available!
Watch closely...believe me it will be an interesting few weeks.
Either way, now is as good a time as any to break out that checkbook and make a donation!
/shameless plug
not until I get a valid certification that 'Nova teaches real American history, not the revisionist kind :)
haha well good luck finding that...they're athletic programs are strong though!
I don't know if he received much financial backing from the GOP in his first race, but people that were involved in that race have described as similiar to the organization put together for Toomey. Meaning ground up. Grassroots won.
IMO, that's why his backing Specter hurt him because the grassroots got him there and it hurt their enthusiasm as they were also the primary force behind Toomey.
He does have the reputation of running an extremely good ground campaign that predates the praised GOTV efforts, and pulling out the win by the bare majority at the end. That's why I've never understood anyone believing this campaign was down 10-20 points. It just isn't possible for him to be below 9% at the most, but far more likely between 3-7% if down.
But, even though I've been dismissive of every polling unit that has shown him so..which has been all polling units...LOL And even though they are showing, now, results that are far more believeable to me? I feel I have to make one further comment.
Even though I've refused to accept results that do not have the ring of truth to them, perception is a big part of politics. Having Santorum move from over 20 points behind to close within margin of error in these polls creates the impression of momentum. That "momentum" can serve to cause the opposing campaign to self inflict errors, and give the voters that shift every day the feeling they are being left off the popular bandwagon...a lot of these folks jump onto the perceived "winner" in the final days.
In conclusion, I still don't accept the previous results as accurate. But I do think they can be used to santorum's advantage now that more realistic polling results are coming in. because most people DID believe those polls.
This year Santorum will need all the help he can get as the Republican Congress has done a crappy job and Bush's approval ratings are in the toilet. Americans are also very weary of having one party control the whole government. The good news is that the Democrat party has proven that they cannot be trusted with ANY lever of government.
Every Senate seat is very important as this is where judicial nominees get decided. And we know that judicial nominees will affect our lives for years to come (not supposed to, but it's the sad fact thanks to activist leftist judges).
Any conservative, who can't look past this and see all the good votes Rick has made, probably isn't a Republican anyways. Santorum will get solid support from conservatives...it remains to be seen if he can get the lions share of moderate voters. Pro-life rat Casey will get any pro-life rat votes, but I remain confident we will hold the seat.
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