I Hope It's a Reality

We may not have made the cut for the Olympics (see Phila. can't cut Olympic mustard), but we are still newsy. The NY Times covers Philly (City Hall) and Washington Post covers the state (politics) in Hope vs. Reality in Pennsylvania. George Will pens an op-ed bemoaning the state of the state for Republicans. He observes:

If you stood Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell next to his opponent, Lynn Swann, you would think the burly Rendell is the former football star. The former two-term mayor of Philadelphia radiates the pugnacious energy of a linebacker for his Philadelphia Eagles. But the comparatively slender Swann, who speaks softly and moves with a dancer's silky smoothness, is the one who played nine seasons as a wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers and hopes to become Pennsylvania's first African American governor.

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Republican Sen. Rick Santorum, a favorite of social conservatives, is in an uphill struggle to hold his seat. His campaign should help Swann's by energizing the Republican base. But, says Rendell contentedly, the Republican vote consists of three increasingly incompatible factions: the loyal base, the disappointed base that may not vote, and Republican moderates who are "fast concluding there's no place for them in the party." From "gay-bashing" to restrictions on stem cell research, he says, "they're appalled by it all."

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Swann is trailing Rendell, who is a fierce campaigner. In the 2002 Democratic gubernatorial primary, Rendell once trailed Bob Casey Jr., the son of a popular former governor (and this year's Democratic nominee against Santorum), by 22 points but won by 13. In the 2002 general election, Rendell lost 49 of 67 counties but piled up huge majorities in the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia media markets. It has been said that Pennsylvania consists of those southeastern and southwestern regions, with Alabama in between -- the T-shaped conservative remainder of the state.

A Swann aide insists that his man generates intensity, whereas Rendell is so familiar that his campaign slogan should be "another century of service." Unfortunately for Swann, Pennsylvanians seem to savor continuity: They have never defeated an incumbent governor.

As the expressions goes -- from his lips to God's ears.

(Via Blinq.)

Tags: PA politics, Ed Rendell