[...] Specter TV ads starts Wednesday… [...]

Brilliant strategy – absolutely brilliant. Force Sestak to either tacitly admit defeat, or squander his $5 million on an ultimately fruitless ad campaign. If Sestak does the former, Senator Specter enjoys a total victory. If Sestak does the latter, the 7th District demagogue will exhaust his resources, and will be vulnerable when the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office come calling in the near future. Specter is coercing Sestak into making a fateful decision: either spend much-needed money on ads and render himself powerless, or refrain from advertising altogether and deposit his $5 million in a Legal Defense Fund in anticipation of forthcoming federal charges.

Sestak must now choose between his ill-fated, ill-considered campaign and his own ass. Such a satisfying outcome…

It’s a VERY small buy. It’s obviously geared to push Sestak to spend money responding. It costs more to defend than attack, and this will put Sestak and his limited resources on the defensive.

Also, it gives Specter the opportunity to define Sestak and his failure to pay his workers minimum wage.

Paraphrasing the Southwest Airlines ads:

Arlen, pack your bags – It’s on.

LOL what’s he going to tell us what a wonderful Democrat he’s been for the past year,and ignore the 30 years he’s been a Repub?

Specter is finished. In the GOP primary, Toomey got 49 percent spending only $3 million to Arlens $12 million. This time, Sestak has over $5 million to SPecter’s $8 million. Rasmussen has the race a dead heat. According to Larry Sabato, famous college professor of poli sci, Rasumussen is reliable.
Bye Bye Snarlin.

Oh yeah, [R]asmussen is really reliable. Let’s see Sabato go up against Nate Silver, famous statistician who successfully predicted 49 out of 50 of the primaries in the 08 election who says that Rasmussen is barely more than a Republican shill.

Specter is a moderate and always has been, bill. He provided the crucial vote for the stimulus and he’s helped us out on many more votes since. He’s always put Pennsylvania before politics. I think that says a lot about the man.

forget party politics. despite 40+ years as a republican, specter has voted consistently moderately, sometimes more so than the blue dogs.

No he hasn’t Issac,he always put what’s best for Arlen first,everything else is secondary. He hasn’t voted as moderate during his 30 years as a republican.

Isaac, I’ll give you the right side of moderate. That’s pretty much been Arlen’s home turf. But Specter’s great failing is that when the chips were down and Repubs needed him, he always came through for them. He would be big and brave on votes that were either already lost or going to win by wide margins, but the Repubs always knew that if it was important, they could count on Arlen’s vote.

Of course, as Bill said above, the most important thing to Specter has always been what’s good for Arlen. Witness how he sold his soul — and his vote — to Rick Santorum in return for Santorum’s endorsement the last time he ran.

Yes, Arlen has been good as gold ever since he knew he’d be challenged in the primary. But you better believe that if he wins the nomination, he will run as fast his spindly, 80-year-old legs can carry him back to the right side of the middle.

Need somebody to compare him to? Try Joe Lieberman. If you want to create a PA version of the guy who put the “Con” in Connecticut, then Specter’s your guy.

So THAT was Sestak’s ad strategy. Specter said he wouldn’t advertise until Sestak did. Sestak evidently figured that he wouldn’t advertise in order to prevent Specter from doing so.

The problem with that strategy is that everyone already knows Specter but more than half don’t know Joe.

Now that Arlen has gotten on the tube first, what does Sestak do now?

[...] Arlen Specter’s campaign hit the airwaves Tuesday night with a buy that reportedly includes the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia media markets, according to a report from pa2010.com. [...]

No info here about content. I wonder if Specter will go negative right out of the box, or if he’ll first try to establish himself as a Democrat. I’m betting he goes negative right away; guess we won’t have to wait long to find out.

C Ya-
Larry Sabato is another Fox New favorite. No shock he likes Rasmussen.

Bruce-
It’s on. But, the Democratic party has put Arlen in First Class, and Sestak’s just extra baggage.

Isaac and lydia-
Arlen keeps getting elected because he appeals to moderates and the swing voters. He gets plenty of Dem votes. He was even endorsed by the labor unions over Hoeffel last time.

Bill-
Sestak continues to put Sestak over everyone else. Next time you are over the office, ask about including some lit drops for other candidates, or ask how much Joe has donated to local candidates (compared to what he promised them). Specifically, ask Joe why he promised the John Linder campaign $5,000 if they busted their asses, yet gave them only $500 the week before the election, when it was too little, too late, to make a difference? (BTW, Linder won without Sestak’s help, but DID get $1,000 from Specter early enough to do some good.)
You wrote:
“He hasn’t voted as moderate during his 30 years as a republican.”
Bill, you must be getting a contact-high from all the young kids at the office. Half those colors you are seeing probably aren’t real.

Bruce-
“Repubs always knew that if it was important, they could count on Arlen’s vote.”
Except for stimulus package, right? It was the GOP’s final straw with him.
Sestak’s a Lieberman in training. A hawk and a fake liberal.

Why would you expect Specter to “run back” to the position that the GOP had to PULL him to?

But, more importantly, you concede that the middle is Specter’s home turf. That said, how can you believe that anyone other than Specter is the best chance to beat Toomey?

BTW, since Sestak’s mailing was one side all negative and the other side touting Joe as the second coming. I got a kick out of: “A native Pennsylvanian, he knows our state..” In 2006, he didn’t even know Delaware county. He moved out of the state nearly 40 years ago when he graduated high school. He doesn’t know $hit about Pennsylvania beyond what he’s memorized for this campaign.

Lee-
Good one.

David – I’m right there with you.

bill – Go out and play, the adults are talking.

Sen. Specter is not a liberal – he’s never been a liberal. The only people who ever called Sen. Specter a liberal are very conservative Republicans.

With respect, the Senator has been too Republican for too long. I expect Sestak to rerun all the ads showing Arlen getting endorsed by Reagan, Papa Bush, Quayle, Dole, Bush 2, Cheney, and Santorum.

It’s going to be a KYW campaign: all negative all the time — on both sides. That’s precisely why Sestak should have done his bio ads earlier.

Issac don’t yu havesome phone calls or mailings to do for the Specter Campaign? What’s your connection to the Specter campaign?

this is the best he’s got? Supported the policies that resulted in shuttering Steel Mills across the US and got only saved 100 pensions. What’s his tag line on this “better than nothing”

I’m just a voter. Full disclosure: I am a registered Democrat; however, I’ve voted for a few Republicans in my day. I actually really like Joe Sestak too, but I think Specter is getting a bum rap on a lot of stuff. I haven’t decided who I’m voting for in the primary yet, but I’m leaning Specter since I’ve always liked him (even when he was a Republican) even if he didn’t always vote the way I wanted.

Do you remember when Specter was a Democrat? I heard him speak at the Chester County Democratic Meeting in March and I think his exact words were “I was a Kennedy Democrat and now I’m back.” As if the 40 year interval should have been irrelevent to the lifelong Democrats sitting there.

Isaac L.-
I’m sure that you are typical of the voter that has helped Specter win over the years. With the hundreds of thousands of moderate Republicans that left the GOP in 2008, Specter is going to appeal to them more than Sestak, because they KNOW that the GOP abandoned them and the Dem is now the big tent party.

[...] Apparently, Arlen Specter’s vision for the future of Pennsylvania includes lots of unemployed union guys drawing government checks and no modern skills. At least, that’s what you gather from his first commercial. [...]

April 14, 2010. One month remains. Senator Specter has launched campaign advertisements. Representative Sestak has not. If Sestak truly believes his prospects are favorable, and if he is truly committed to a primary victory, he will counter Specter’s efforts. The reasoning is ironclad, folks. No legitimate candidate would stand idly by while his/her opponent lambastes him/her on the air.

I, of course, will welcome any significant expenditure on Sestak’s part. His $5 million is the only source of power he has remaining. Go ahead, Admiral, squander your much-needed campaign dollars – your foes (and they are many in number) will rejoice. Incur such an expenditure, and you will be more impotent, more vulnerable, than ever. Attorney’s fees are quite staggering now days, remember.

Lee Levan: And imagine the negative advertisements Specter can launch against the belleagured Sestak. Sestak “has made unsubstantiated allegations against the Democratic President of the United States.” Sestak, “who was endorsed by a former congressman who fondles the private parts of innocent young males.” Sestak, who “pays his staff minimum wage, in the midst of a severe economic crisis.”

What unsubstanstiated allegations are those hater? If the White House did not offer him a job to stay out of the race where is the blanket denial. Maybe the FBI,CIA,INTERPOL,ATF,ETC… are going to deliver that when he is indicted in your fantasy land.

Bill-
It’s unsubstantiated because Sestak made the accusation but then refused to substantiate it with ANY critical details like:

1) Who made the offer?
2) Exactly what specific job was offered?
3) Was this initiated by the White House, or had Sestak himself let it be known he would get out for the right offer (but the offer wasn’t big enough)?
4) If this is a crime and Sestak was so “offended” by it, why didn’t Sestak report it to the proper authorities at the time?
5) How come we find out about it 7 months later when it “slips” out at an interview?

this hasn’t even begun.

Bill-
The White House DID issue a denial that nothing improper occurred in the way of making Sestak an offer.