What’s wrong with being a run-of-the-mill Democrat? The economy is consistently better served under Democratic administrations, as we support a broader social safety net that helps foster the kind of social and economic mobility that Republicans always say they want in the abstract – but then they get elected and only make policy for their rich campaign contributors. Tom Corbett and Jim Gerlach are just like every other Republican – the same Randian bifurcated worldview where there are necessarily only the productive and the moochers, where material wealth alone confers value. We don’t need any more Republicans getting elected anywhere after seeing what they do when they get hold of all three branches of government. PA doesn’t need its own Bush experiment – we need a Democratic Governor and a newly Democratic state Senate to help PA’s economy transition to the future, not the gilded past.

Hoeffel is the standard Democratic candidate–a professional politician who never really did anything else and perhaps never wanted to. In fairness, there are lots of Republicans like this, too. I don’t think it’s what the founders intended, but the more expensive and professional politics gets, the more we”ll see this.

At the Governor level, a politician who understands and can navigate the bureaucracy is a plus, not a drawback. Being Governor is a far less sexy job than being a Senator – you have to manage an organization, not just debate. It’s ill-suited to people like Palin whose only “asset” is her fealty to the tired culture war banner, but whose actual bureaucratic capacity is wanting. Are there other qualities and life experiences we should want from our leaders? Of course. But there’s nothing inherently wrong with a candidate who has spent his whole career as a public servant. I also think it’s funny to see how much hand-wringing about Hoeffel is going on on the right. That’s how you know you’ve got a strong candidate