What was an attempt to show that Sen. Rick Santorum plays well with others may well backfire. The down-in-the-polls Republican toured the Philadelphia suburbs with the likes of "moderate" senators Arlen Specter, Norm Coleman of Minnesota, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine. What's next, a trip to Primanti's with Hillary Clinton and Las Vegas with Harry Reid? ... Speaking of Santorum, his race against Democrat Bobby Casey Jr. slowly but surely has been falling off the list of the top pundits' "key races to watch." And that means the pros, watching how the numbers are "trending," think Santorum's goose could be cooked. Look for his thermometer to pop up any day now -- especially if his handlers keep mishandling him. [emphasis added]So it's not Rick, it's his handlers?
We've already blogged in Rick's short-lived flirtation with moderation (he was out stumping with the hardly-moderate Sean Hannity within days). Where it's good to see Dickiecougarmellonscaife's paper (maybe) agreeing, I gotta wonder what will the CW be if Rick loses - why wouldn't it (or shouldn't it) be Rick's fault if he goes down in flames?
Meanwhile, check out the lastest poll from the Temple University/Philadelphia Inquirer. First the description for the skeptics out there:
For the October Temple/ Inquirer Poll a random- digit dial sample of 1019 Pennsylvanians registered to vote were interviewed between October 16 and October 25, 2006. The sample included 698 classified as likely voters. With a sample of this size, the overall margin of error attributable to sampling is 3.8 percentage points.They randomly selected a thousand people and found that in answer to this question:
If the 2006 election for Pennsylvania's U. S. Senator were being held today and the candidates were Rick Santorum, the Republican, and Bob Casey Jr., the Democrat, who would you vote for?38% said Rick Santorum and 54% said Bob Casey. That's a sixteen point difference. The same question was asked a month ago and the numbers were 39/49 for Santorum/Casey.
According to this poll, Casey's support has jumped 5 points (that's larger than the margin of error) while Santorum's support remained about the same at 38/39 percent.
Maybe The Trib can blame this on Rick's handlers, too.
Rick Santorum - he's not a bad candidate, his handlers are running a bad campaign.
4 comments:
Maybe it's his base turning on him because his wrestling ad seems way too non hetero...then there's the issue of his gay advisor. Rapture Ready Republicans truly hate the gays.
He should hurry up and put out some ads with fully pregnant breeder wives and their giant home-schooled families to show that the RRR's can keep their faith in Ricky.
I saw Casey on TV this weekend with Mike Lamb. Is he going to be Casey's PA director?
Like Rick, Santorum's media people only know how to do things one way. They produce expensive, expansive ads which, while sometimes interesting to watch, are more complicated than they need to be. They are so full of "concept" that many voters have no idea what they're supposed to draw from them.
It's the classic advertising agency trap of "let's do this really cool commercial so we can impress other clients with our creativity." You know the kind; the water-cooler ads that, while fun to watch, leave everyone going, "Who was that for???"
Many of the negative ads backfired, because they were simply too, too. Too over the top. Too full of questionable material. Too nutty for their own good.
Viewers have been tuning out negative ads for years...and these would make them leap for the remote. Remember, most voters don't just dislike political ads, THEY HATE THEM! They might zone out and watch one that's "positive," but the negatives mostly just piss them off.
And in this campaign, there was this juvenile approach to Casey. The folks at BrabenderCox clearly wanted to tag him with the "Bobby" diminutive right off. It was in one of the first radio spots they aired. But I would guess that most listeners just thought this was silly and stupid; not clever and funny. It amounted to name-calling on the playground...and a lot of PA residents, including those solid souls in the T, don't like that sort of thing.
Over the years, Santorum and his media hacks have drifted along on the rising tide that lifts all ships...while getting credit for being smart, intuitive and super creative. The truth, of course, is that, the first time Santorum has had any real competition, he's going to lose.
You have to wonder; what will the pundits say about the campaign late next week?
This is the guy we need to vote for.
http://brianin2020.blogspot.com
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