Here we are, just one week to the Pennsylvania primary. I myself will try to get out and vote (for Howard Dean if he's on the ballot! wee haw--and for the state rep candidate I favor--if he's still on the ballot as well), but a lot of the action will be on the Republican side.
Here's an update on what's happening (not much) and a few thoughts on the matter. I apologize that they are a bit rambly and water coolerish, but it's the best you'll get from me this morning.
The pollsters are still citing polls with Spector leading in single digits. I haven't heard anything new over the last week or so, so I assuming they are going with fairly old numbers. If anyone has new polling info, feel free to chime in.
I also heard a snippet of analysis on my NPR station of how this race is playing out a larger Republican intraparty drama. It seems to me that in style (though certainly not in substance) Pat Toomey and his ilk are trying to be the Howard Deans of the right. They want something purer, something closer to the ideological root of small government, low taxes, low spending, "religious" values and the like, and they don't want to be like the establishment--the Republican wing of the Republican party, if you will.
Mr. Club for Growth had his moment talking about how even if Toomey loses, hopefully other moderates will toe the line if they don't want to face a challenge like this.
Then the NPR people talked to Republicans in Chester county, which is one of the more conservative of the suburban counties surrounding Philadelphia. As we had suspected, or hoped, the interviewee said he was supporting Spector, but if Toomey became the candidate, he'd seriously consider voting for Hoeffel, who is at least a moderate. He said that Toomey only appealed to a pretty small portion of the state. And, in an encouraging sign, he didn't seem to think much of Santorum either.
Meanwhile, Spector was going on about how he was the first Republican to win in Philadelphia county back when he was the DA (how long ago was that, Arlen?) and that while he didn't expect Bush to win Philadelphia county (well at least he's that realistic) he thought his presence on the ballot would help Bush pick up votes in Philadelphia county. Somehow, I think Bush's presence on the ballot would hurt Spector, but that's another story.
Meanwhile, Dems and Republicans are chomping at the bit over Hoeffel's old district. The 3 Republicans had a radio debate where all 3 agreed on just about everything except abortion. The 2 women were pro-choice (and the one who won the Rep. nom. 2 years ago is a doctor and gave a very credible defense of why, as a doctor and former nurse, she's pro-choice--and just incidentally, she and her husband wrote a chapter in a book I'm currently editing) while the man was not. I think the man will lose. I have no idea how things are going in the Dem primary, so will be interested to see the outcome.
Which leads to the end of my rambling, and a bit more about moderation. Moderates get a bad rap around these parts, and doubtless around places like Free Republic as well. But the fact is that most people like being in the middle--we tend to like being a big bell curve. In our system, extreme rhetoric occurs pretty frequently, but extreme policies are rarely enacted--and that's one of the benefits of our type of government. The Taliban is extreme. We are moderates. So how does anything move around here? The way to do it is move the center. We've seen it happen. Gay marriage is now extreme. Domestic partnership benefits offered by corporations are now in the center (and who would have thought that would happen 20 years ago?). A black president or a female president is extreme, a black secretary of state or a female secretary of state is in the center. In another 10-20 years, who knows where the center will be, but as long as it's still "the center" people will be comfortable there. So don't spit on the center, seek to define it, because that's where the majority of people want to be, and the majority of people win elections.
Oh, and here's a throwaway poll for the heck of it