Dan,

From the tone of your story, or at least Sestak’s quotes, it almost sounds like he’s backing down a bit. Not the usual aggressive stuff. The fact that’s he says it could be someone else seems to speak volumes in my mind, but I lack the context. Did you notice any change in his manner or the way he spoke about a possible race? Do you think the poll results were surprising to him?

Honest words from Sestak.

How many elected officals would be up-front about name recognition like that.

When it comes to principles, it’s time for Specter to go.

Wow. I’m completely shocked at the low-key approach and acknowledgment of weakness. “It doesn’t have to be me” ???? Somebody needs to call M. Night Shyamalan and find out if Sestak got lost in some supernatural area of PA.

He’s on Fox and MSNBC a lot, but those shows never get seen by more than 1% of the population.

It also sounds like Sestak finally got a clue as to how spread out Pennsylvania is and how much the Party’s political organization is worth. He has never shown a real understanding or appreciation of how much the existing Delco/Montco/Chestco infrastructure did to jump start his 2006 campaign and carried him. Now, he’s starting to get a clue about the price of his lone wolf approach.

Some of his “tour” photos showed him with less than 10 people.

I would feel sorry for him, if it wasn’t such a long overdue reality check for his ego and attitude.

David,

Don’t get your hopes up. I saw another quote from the conference call where Sestak says “I’m in this and I’m gonna win!”

While I agree the tone of this article seems a departure, it doesn’t seem like he had his ego in check for much of the call.

Stosh-
He’s dug himself a hole. By making such a big deal about his “outrage” over Specter and how this fight is a core fire-in-the-belly thing for Sestak, he’s going to look like a total pu$$y if he backs out. He also made the mistake of believing his own press releases.
He’s going to have a tough time backing down and being happy staying in his Congressional seat. If he (ever) announces, and other Dems run to fill his seat, he can’t coming back and screw them over with a Primary. The response will be like French revolution (including guillotines).

What, they didn’t recognize the Admiral??? Didn’t Joe show them his shoulderboards and his three, er, two (I always forget)stars? Haven’t these Pennsylvania people ever heard of DEEP BLUE, for Crissakes? People of PA, get out of your churches and put down your guns, this man has been on the picture box with Keith Olbermann!!!

Yo!!! Anyone want to ask Sestak to give the contact names and places he visited in three weeks???

67 Counties in three weeks???

Prove it Joe…..I, and i suspect a lot of other people don’t buy it.

I agree with Chris that Sestak simply was being honest. But if any of Specter’s supporters want to underestimate Sestak or his resolve, please feel free to do so.

Btw, it’s much easier to increase one’s name recognition (especially this early in the process) than it is to wash away Specter’s record of solid support for Bush during the last 8 years.

And in case you stopped reading the story before he talked about his candidacy announcement, the story reported “that he would finally make his candidacy official in about a month.”

Stosh,

forgive the lack of context… On reflection, I suppose the story was a tad rushed.

I did not notice any change in his tone. He had plenty to say about Specter still, I just didn’t report it because none of it was remotely new. His comment about “it could be somebody else” was in the context of him talking about the importance of primary voters having a choice.

Hope that clarifies things. Keep up the great conversation everybody!

Dan Hirschhorn

Mr. Reality

Read the story again. Sestak didn’t say that he had a huge rally in every county, he said that he traveled “through all 67 of Pennsylvania’s counties in three weeks”. That’s easily done.
If you want to start a list, I can vouch for Berks and Indiana counties.

Lee-
You wrote:
“And in case you stopped reading the story before he talked about his candidacy announcement, the story reported “that he would finally make his candidacy official in about a month.””

Back around June 15th or so, Sestak said that he’s be announcing “in about a month”. And in May he made similar remarks. He’s keeps moving the ball down the field, but never gets any closer to the goal line.

“Btw, it’s much easier to increase one’s name recognition ” EASY = $$$ millions

Mr. Reality-
He’s been listing places and people, even with pictures on his Twitter page. However, the groups of people were often very small.

Traveling while many people are on vacation and spending time with their kids, almost guaranteed little bang for the buck.

The groups are probably small because they aren’t big rallys, they are county picnics and exec meetings. He’s not running for the general yet, he’s running for the primary, exactly like he should be at this stage. Right now its a battle for the supervoters who show up for a midterm primary. And 67 counties in 21 days isn’t that huge.

Is this where he should be right now?

“Sestak blasted by Democratic chairman”
http://www.politico.com/blogs/scorecard/0709/Sestak_blasted_by_Democratic_chairman.html?showall

“Sestak ticking off the establishment”
http://www.politico.com/blogs/scorecard/0709/Sestak_ticking_off_the_establishment.html?showall

From inside sources who know – he’s going back to Washington to work on health care and will declare in about a month. And no, he’s not backing out. We’re already working for him

Jonathan-
If he’s going to run, why the delay? In mid-June, he said he’s announce in a month. Now, it’s another month. He did a whole 67-county tour (including a visit to his own county that nobody here seems to know anything about).
He could have announced and filed his papers weeks ago. The story about spending time with his family before “deploying” holds as much water as a leaky rowboat.

Sestak can declare anytime, and still spend a month with his family before he “deploys”.

A lot of people think he realized he can’t win and is backing off. They don’t believe he will be on the 2010 ballot for Senate. I think they’re wrong, because his ego is so big, he can’t conceive that people wouldn’t prefer him to Arlen.

We’ve got people who actually care about the 7th District ready to run for his seat, and his dragging this out upsets their plans.

Sestak’s got slow-mentum, not joe-mentum (and both are bad signs). If you are working for Joe, bang on the bathroom door and tell him to sh*t or get off the pot.

In 2006, Sestak campaigned on timetables (then voted against them and with Bush in 2007). How about some timetable on announcing that doesn’t move a month, every month?

BTW, Joe’s every changing stories about why he’s running and the timetable are wearing thin as well. Joe’s acting like he never considered a run until he “claims” he was approached to run in April. But back in February he was already staffing up. I gave up expecting a honest timeline from the campaign months ago.

Sestak is breaking Federal Elction laws, assuming he is telling the truth and hasn’t filed as a Candidate yet..
I read the rules and filed because of my website alone.