Let's look at one of them:
Here's the text (courtesy of ER):
TV: 15 - “Health Insurance” (Watch here)"Sestak voted to permit banning all private health insurance (HR 3200, Education and Labor Committee, Vote #19, 07/17/09)"
Joe Sestak voted for government-run health care (RC#165, 03/21/10)
But he went much further. Sestak voted to permit banning all private health insurance (HR 3200, Education and Labor Committee, Vote #19, 07/17/09)
That’s really liberal. That’s Joe Sestak.
I’m Pat Toomey and I approved this message.
Really?
First, a link to that vote here seems to show that this was merely a vote to favorably report the HCR bill to the House with all but three Democrats voting yes and all Republicans voting no.
What I'm guessing the Toomey ad is actually referring to is an amendment which would have allowed states to adopt a single-payer system -- hardly a vote to "permit banning all private health insurance" -- at least not without a lot of caveats (like we don't really mean ALL private health insurance).
In fact, as reported here, when that particular amendment was voted on, some conservative Republicans voted for the amendment because they wanted to "preserve the rights of states to regulate themselves."
Hmm, I guess that means that Toomey is against preserving the rights of states to regulate themselves.
Someone may want to alert the Tea Party...
.
I swear I saw a Toomey anti-Sestak ad I think the day after the primary (actually I think it might have been the evening of the primary, after eight). It is going to be a long campaign season.
ReplyDeletePennsylvania is the State that elected John Heinz and yes, Arlen Specter, moderate Republicans. Pennsylvania voters, a majority of both Democrats and Republicans, have a tendency to vote for the moderate in an election. So I think there is an opportunity for Sestak to play up his military career and basically try to stay in the middle. Like Jim Webb, I think that might be a good fit for Sestak. If Sestak calls for the US to withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan, it could be seen as a "Only Nixon could go to China" or "Only Clinton could sign welfare in reform" kind of thing. But that will depend on Sestak threading that needle. Hope he will be that smart and capable a campaigner.
"So I think there is an opportunity for Sestak to play up his military career and basically try to stay in the middle."
ReplyDeleteI believe you're right.