re: #218 Lynn B.

Toomey didn’t have a prayer in 04. Pennsylvania has been trending decidedly left for quite some time, even excluding Pittsburgh and Philly. Look what happened to Santorum in 06. This Commonwealth isn’t going to elect a far-right senator unless something pretty dramatic happens.

Whether Specter can win as a Democrat is anyone’s guess, but he saw the writing on the walls. He wasn’t going to win the GOP nomination this year. I still agree with Cato’s #55 though. The crazier “conservative” commentary does tend to push folks around here in a leftward direction. My polling place usually has five R booths and one D booth set up for primaries but my district keeps electing Dems to Congress and has been going Dem for Senate and President in the last few elections.

Santorum made himself the poster boy for the religious right with some really stupid comments about gay marriage and his history of moralizing before that.

I don’t know if Toomey is the same kind of guy, but just assuming that a “conservative” can’t win in PA because Santorum lost is not necessarily accurate.

And Santorum was and remains a huge supporter of international “poverty relief,” even through all the Bush 43 deficit years. Yes, charity is nice, but borrowing money from my potential grandchildren to line some African despot’s pockets with “foreign aid” is not conservative.