Nominating a controversial candidate with huge baggage like msnbc's Chris Matthews will effectively concede the PA 2010 U.S. Senate race to the loathsome Republican Arlen Specter. Matthews cannot win statewide. Period. No amount of advertising can dress him up sufficiently to appeal to the swing voters that Democrats need to win to win statewide. PA Democratic nominees for U.S. Senator have won only TWO elections in the last 46 years! John F. Kennedy was still President when Dem. Joe Clark won reelection in 1962.
PA Dems need to be smart to beat Specter. We need to nominate someone who can appeal to swing voters, not just hard core progressive Democrats. Chris Matthews does not fit that bill.
Only 2 Democratic Senate nominees have won in 46 years in PA: Harris Wofford in the fluke, lower-turnout special election in 1991 (after death of Sen. Heinz) and current Sen. Bob Casey Jr. Wofford ran an inept reelection campaign and lost in 1994.
Compare the 2010 PA Senate race to the 2008 Minnesota Senate race. Democrats may well lose a seat (the Minnesota seat) we should have won comfortably - if we had nominated someone less controversial and with less negative baggage than a TV comedian. A "boring", less controversial nominee in Minnesota would have won more along the lines of Amy Klobuchar's 443,000 margin in 2006 or Obama's 300,000 vote unofficial margin. Like Franken, Matthews has a long history of provocative and controversial comments, all preserved on videos, that the Specter campaign and outside conservative groups will be able to exploit. Those video snippets will NOT appeal to swing voters in the large part of PA between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
We do not want another Senate candidate popular with Hollywood and New York contributors but weaker than needed among the state's voters actually making the choice.
Nominating Chris Matthews for Senate in PA in 2010 is the Specter campaign's greatest hope for another reelection victory.
More electable nominees could be former Navy Admiral and U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak (PA-07) or Iraq war veteran and U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy (PA-08). Matthews and U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz (PA-13) would be weak general election nominees unlikely to be able to win statewide.