Cue David Diano and HateSestak in 3…2…1..

Lets predict what they say…

Diano: I predict that this ad will reinforce all the notions of Sestak that I have. He is aloof and didn’t listen to me. I hate him and so should you! I will attack anyone that defends Sestak with bits and pieces of the record but leave untouched whole swaths of other evidence.

HateSestak: Great! Now Sestak will have no money left over for his legal defense to charges forthcoming from the FBI! I told them about it personally so they’re coming for him any second. Want to ask me to provide specifics about anything? Not a chance! However I will use the phrase “endorsed by a congressman who fondled genitals” as many times as possible in order to try and delegitimize any Sestak every says and does! Who am I? I am an important person who will never reveal myself, but trust in my importance!

David Diano: I agree with everything HateSestak says, however I will challenge anyone who posts here under an assumed name as being cowardly! Should I challenge HateSestak for doing the same thing? Nope! YOURE NOT DEMOCRATIC ENOUGH FOR ME!

Got that out of the way? Great! Now legitimate conversation on the issues can begin! The comments on this site are only as valuable as the commentators who leave them. I for one look forward to watching Sestak’s ads and comparing them with Specter’s without the running biased commentary from these two.

Joe’s starting with a 60-second spot?

We should have a pool for how many seconds into it we hear the phrase “31 years in the Navy”.

Airing 60-second spots in the morning could cause problems, since people are trying to wake up at that hour.

It looks like Specter has forced Sestak’s hand to start spending money.

BTW, Sestak transferred $4.17 million from his congressional account into his Senate account on March 31st.

Sestak’s fundrasing has been over hyped. Sestak ENDED his 2008 campaign with $3 million in the bank. (Another example of Sestak’s bad faith by diverting money from the 7th district.)

So, Sestak really hasn’t raise that much for his Senate campaign, since most of it is left over from his congressional campaign. It’s a shame they’ll be none left to give back to the donors.

@FH-LMAO & so true!

@DD–cut it out and clean the Cheetos off your pajamas.

FH-
“The comments on this site are only as valuable as the commentators who leave them.”

It a shame you aren’t a useful contribution.

I’ve made plenty of predictions about Sestak’s lack of traction and support, his campaign gimmicks, and his handling of his finances as well as his late-starting campaign strategy.

If the ads are anything like the amateur ones he’s made for the web, he’s going to be wasting millions.

sick-
I don’t eat Cheetos. Please stop fantasizing about me in my pajamas.

Four weeks to change the PA political landscape. Let the wild rumpus begin!

Arlen, pack your bags – it’s on.

@David Diano- Now see there you go again, “I’ve made plenty of predictions…” No, you haven’t. You’ve made your OPINION known. As for predictions, youve made not one, at least not one made in facts. Poll comes out that says Sestak is tied, “Its a Rasmusen Poll, its a republican shill, its wrong!”, Poll comes out saying Sestak is behind again, “Greatest poll ever! Who cares if its a republican poll, it tells the truth!”

You’ve constantly posited argument after argument saying why Sestak isn’t, in your view, qualified enough to serve as Senator. That is your right and privilege. However, trying to frame your vitriolic attacks as legitimate “predictions” is laughable at best. I have watched for weeks as you comment without any substance other than your own personal brand of vendetta against one candidate.

This article and your response is a perfect example. Do you comment on any of the substantive issues in the article? Nope, instead you say, “Airing 60-second spots in the morning could cause problems, since people are trying to wake up at that hour.” Does the article say this is the only time he is airing these ads? No, that is just when they are beginning. Does Specter run ads at the same in the morning? Sure does, but they’re the greatest things in the morning, aren’t they David? Have you seen these ads? Nope! However, you are confident enough in their content to state, “If the ads are anything like the amateur ones he’s made for the web, he’s going to be wasting millions.” Why not wait to see their content to discern whether or not he’s wasting money? Oh that’s right, because that would forgo an opportunity to take potshots.

You take an opportunity to criticize Sestak’s fundraising efforts and chastise him for transferring money from his congressional campaign, while ignoring the fact that Arlen Specter is partially running on monies collected from Republican donors left over from his fundraising there. So you will retort with, well Arlen allowed any donor to ask for a refund, its their own fault for not doing so if they didnt. If you donated any money to Joe Sestak, in his last congressional campaign, ask for it back!

Why have you never criticized HateSestak for posting anonymously, when I have seen you berate others for doing the same? Why have you never called him out on his repeated (semi-libelous) statements concerning an impending FBI arrest against Sestak that he has shown ZERO evidence for? Is it because you don’t care, so long as someone agrees with you in your distaste for Sestak? Is it because you could care less the content, so long as it potentially makes Sestak look bad?

If you don’t like him, dont vote for him. Want to tell others not to as well, great! Tell them! But you use this site to wage your own personal war against one guy, commenting within minutes of any posting going up that includes his name. Its really rather annoying to anyone that trys to look for legitimate dialogue concerning this election to come on this site and see you and HateSestak posting constantly, repeating the same points over and over, and shouting down anyone that dares challenge you. Its a shame you can’t respect other people’s opinions, choosing instead to mock them instead of engaging with them.

FH-
You need to learn to read, or start buying some clues. I’ve made it clear for long time (and it’s discussed on other sites about this race) that Rasmussen is an outlier poll by at least 8-10 points. I’ve even predicted the numbers in other polls by taking this into account.

You also don’t seem to be able to distinguish between humor and my substantive comments. However, 60-seconds is long for an ad in the morning when you are already yawning. He’s better off with two 30-second ads or four 15-second ads. But, that’s okay, because he’s going to burn the money faster with longer ads.

I think Specter’s p*ssing away money with morning ads too, but if he get’s Sestak to jump into that slot to compete, it drains Sestak more than it helps get voters.

I’ve seen Specter’s 60-second steel worker ad here on PA2010. It’s pretty well done.

I’ve seen Sestak’s “web-ads” on his site and YouTube page and they are pretty amateurish and appear to be made by his staffers. You don’t use black-and-white for a positive ad, you use color. The style of the ads is like the “before” in an ad about a pill for treating “depression”.

He’s got an ad with his wife telling how they met. It’s 1:27 long, and it’s a nice story, but he’s not going to spend any money airing it.

Do you think these ads didn’t already meet with Sestak’s approval? They are just the kind of ego stroking Sestak loves to present. They are more about how Sestak views himself. If he’s spending $5 million you can be sure he’s going to micro-manage the ads. He’s got no campaign manager and various other key professionals to handle this stuff.

Specter didn’t merely “allow” he OFFERED to return money to donors who asked for it back (though he was not legally obligated to return any of it).
Sestak, on the other hand, has made no public offer to return the money to donors who expected that money to stay in the 7th district and were deceived by him.

I have criticized Hater for posting anonymously, due to the nature of his claims. Hater avoided being banned because he actually produced documentation to support his claims that Sestak had been accused of crimes (providing names, dates, etc. detailing the accusations). I’ve spoken directly with the originators of the documents and found them to be quite credible. You will note that Hater continues to make claims against Sestak and hasn’t been banned or censored. That’s a clue that there is more going on than you understand.

I think it’s pretty funny that you jumped on this topic thread, only to attack me and Hater, and not make any actual points about Sestak.

Here’s the bottom line: Besides Sestak being a complete @sshole, he’s damaging the Democratic party with his fruitless challenge of Specter.

Sestak is not only going to waste millions of dollars that should have gone to protect the hard-fought 7th District, but is going to force Specter to spend millions as well on an expensive primary that eventually helps Pat Toomey. Toomey wants Sestak to win the Primary more than anyone in Sestak’s campaign office.

Sestak has recently fueled Republican attacks on Obama by claiming a bribe was offered by the White House to drop out of the race. Sestak admitted that the “offer” was “indirect”. Joe could have diffused the whole thing by stating that he “misunderstood” an ambiguous conversation, but instead chose to double-down.
Sestak recently referred to the House Democratic caucus as the “most undemocratic place” on Earth. How does that help the party?

Joe’s running on “changing Washington”. That’s what Obama is trying to do, and Sestak’s undermining him and throwing the Democratic party under the bus. He sounds more like he’s interviewing to be a “contributor” on Fox News, than a Democratic Senate candidate.

I think we should all write in Joe Vod Varka for US Senate In Both Parties

Am eager to see Sestak’s ads. He’s bet the farm on them. Although I’m hardly the only one who believes that he waited far too long to run them,
his consultant and he believe otherwise. Expectations have been raised quite high by his waitng until the last 4 weeks of the campaign to use television. The ads better be damn good. Hopefully, I’ll be proven wrong about his delay.

I wonder if sleestak will have his navy bomber jacket on for the whole ad.

[...] Initial 60 spot with a positive tone… [...]

David…you do eat cheetos…and the footy pjs are coming back in so you’re in luck…do you have you’re own entrance to your parents home? do they know you’re up so late at night?

I saw a negative campaign ad from Specter this morning on a local tv news show. It was all about “No Show Joe.” It started by saying the Rep. Sestak was removed from the Navy for a hostile work environment. Then it discussed how Sestak has missed soooo many votes.

The ad was well done. I think the Sestak campaign has given Specter plenty of ammo to work with. Also, Specter can certainly out spend Sestak on advertisements. Specter will win this primary hands-down. The only question is how much damage can Sestak inflict on Specter in the process?

@David Diano- I haven’t written anything about Sestak since I haven’t seen the actual ads. The point of finally posting on a blog post like this one is that this particular blog post had zero substantive issues and all the opportunities in the world for attacks against Sestak. It literally said nothing, but lo and behold, you posted and attacked Sestak. If you really cared about issues, you’d have waited to see the actual ads before commenting on how ineffective they will be.

You’ve made up your mind on who to vote for based on your own personal feelings towards Sestak, summed up so completely in your ad hominem attacks against Sestak (calling his ads “ego stroking” and Sestak himself an “@sshole”). Again, I’m not here to tell anyone how or why to vote for someone. Instead of discussing issues raised in a blog post, you’d rather project your own personal feelings onto whatever happens to be the topic du jour.

Unfortunately, you think this is still the days of Boss Tweed and Tammany hall, where party dictates from start to finish who will come in first to last in a given primary. Did you ever stop and think that maybe Sestak was telling the truth about his offer? Someone asked him a direct question, and he answered truthfully? How is that a bad thing in politics today?! If someone else messed up by making an offer they shouldn’t have, well that’s on them, but Sestak turned them down. One of the first things that turned my head towards this race was that Sestak telling the truth like that. And you decide to repeatedly attack him for telling the truth because it might “damage the party”? I won’t even get into the Specter-Santorum comments, but how can you attack someone for being honest in politics?!

David, if you want to put the party ahead of all else, thats fine. However, I have always believed that the way to truly decide on who to vote for was to look at all the factors (not just party endorsement), and say “this is the person who I will vote for”. Maybe that’s naive, but it certainly feels a lot better than being told who to like and who not to.

PS- If you and hater want to post up every document you have on a blog post (under your real names) I would think you should do it soon. However, I think hiding behind a pseudonym and vague threats works much more effectively for your purposes. Oh, and saying “I’ve spoken directly with the originators of the documents and found them to be quite credible” does not count. I dont care what you believe or not (since you seem to believe anything that attacks Sestak), as a voter I want to see the same things you have and make up my own mind, not have you do it for me.

So the Real Snarlin’ Arlen comes out already, eh? Anybody suprised by this?

And I’m sure his gnarled, age-scarred face doesn’t appear in this one, either.

They’re hiding him. In the mud.

He had to go negative as soon as Joe’s ads hit the air,That’s good, now the gloves are off,Arlen has more to lose in a negative ad war,He’s got a pea ahooter and Joe’s got a carrier group.

Didn’t think you wore pajamas Diano. Thought Neanderthals slept in the buff.

I think this is Sestak’s new commercial…haven’t seen a post on this on this web site, but it was on another PA political blog…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4BW9_qH_-E&feature=player_embedded

Very sad way to have to wake up to the little admiral lying his butt off as usual. I must say that the add was poorly done and who really cares about his 31 years in the Navy. Just proves to most people that he never had a real job as most people did all their lives. The next add I saw was by Sen Specter and I must say that one was very well done and should make any thinking person think.
Once you see and hear the two adds it is very clear that any thinking person would vote for Specter and let NO SHOW Joe go to work on K Street in DC I think that would be the est for the little Admiral as the Navy got rid of him, he was a lousy Congressman, he pays slave wages and the FBI is about to nail him any day. Just what more do you need. Yes Delaware county will vote for him as there are no Committee people to speak of and it will say Delaware County under his name but he will not carry another county that has committee people that know how to work their Pct.
Can’t wait till May 18th when we all say say goodbye to this clown and have a REAL Democrat replace No Show Joe. Bye, Bye Joe !

Is Neal Oxman doing Seatk’s ads?

Bob F. – That’s got to be it. And contrast this – in which Joe is on-camera nearly 100% of the time – with Specter’s “let’s hide the candidate” ads so far. What a difference.

Love the subtle-like-a-smack-to-the-head tag line of “Joe Sestak – The Democrat running against Arlen Specter.”

This ad is a pretty weak introduction. Sestak comes off as tone deaf by highlighting health care so prominently in the ad. I appreciate that that was his motivation for running for office, but people in the state want to hear how he is going to solve their problems, not harp on an issue that has shown to be unpopular for the general electorate. The use of his daughter in the ad has the possibility of making viewers uncomfortable, not saying that the story of his daughter and motivation for getting into politics shouldn’t be used or can’t be used effectively, but the way it was placed in this ad has the feel of being exploitatitve, and it could have been more subtly handled. I think it was a good idea to do some kind of overall introduction, but they needed to make it more relevant to the issues that voters are concerned about. The whole ad just feels a little bit off key.

Really, “Tom” – healthcare isn’t important? I think there may be a question about who’s tone-deaf here.

Let’s see. Who had 14-seconds in the pool for how long into the commercial it would be for the phrase “31 years in the Navy”?
Joe’s been running for almost a year now, yet the ad was filled with images from his 2006 campaign. The crowds waving signs were Sestak for Congress, not Senate. He really spend a lot of time shamelessly exploiting his daughter’s illness, especially with old footage of her.

Dan-
The current crop of ads are going to be pre-canned for a while. Keep an eye out for the first ad that directly responds to an opponents ad as a rebuttal or counter-attack.

FH-
There are plenty of local Delco Dems that have worked for Sestak and call him worse names, and are eager to vote against him. This isn’t about “party dictating”, as Sestak would have people believe. Former Sestak staffers have spread into various campaigns and legislative staffs, and are generally not complimentary about Sestak. Other Dems know they can’t count on Sestak.
In 2009, Arlen spent a lot of time helping candidates and committees raise money. Unlike Sestak, Specter didn’t invite the Westmoreland Dems out for coffee, then stick them with the bill.
As for the offer, my guess is that Sestak sent word up the line that he’d be willing to drop out for the right offer, but didn’t get the offer he wanted. Sestak is not a particularly truthful person. He frequently weasels out of promises by claiming, after the fact, that there was some misunderstanding or that some previously unstated condition wasn’t met to his satisfaction.

In 2006, a lot of us took Sestak at his word on a lot of things. We’ve learned better since then.

Bruce-
I guess Arlen wins on going negative first. How soon will Sestak respond with his own negative attacks.

Bill-
If Joe’s got a carrier group, then Arlen has the rest of the fleet, including the Commander in Chief.

Lana-
It will be refreshing to replace Sestak with Lentz. Once Sestak loses, those Sestak volunteers who want to keep the 7th should be helpful working the phones for Bryan.

I met Arlen a few weeks ago. I don’t think he even had a clue where he was. He smelled like no one had changed him in weeks. The Democrats are trying to do a “Weekend at Bernie’s” thing with Arlen and hope nobody realizes they’re dragging a corpse all around the state to get 6 more years of power.

Even “Bernie” has more life in him than the Sestak campaign.

JOBS — that’s the issue that will resonate. You have to talk about jobs. That’s all there is to it.

flynn-
Specter can point to tons of jobs and projects over his career for people and industries all over the state. His endorsement from Labor is going to pull a lot of weight too.

@DD–except that specter talks out of both sides of his mouth on efca…big labor bosses like big political party bosses may be lined up behind him, but they were the same way for Bobby Casey for Governor 8 yrs ago…how’d that go?

Sestak looks a little sick in this picture, are you sure he’s OK?

the only jobs Specter has bought home are pork barrel projects. The state has shed hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs from the private sector while he’s been in office and he’s done little to stand up for the state’s manufacturers in spite of what his ads now say. (why do you think he’s running those ads, he obviously feels that he’s vulnerable on the issue). take the development of the marcellus shale, for instance, what has Specter done/said to help advance this cause. If he was forward looking he would be advocating the use of federal dollars to study the impacts of the drilling or to research new techniques in order to guarantee that the drilling can be done in a safe and responsible way and create lots of jobs, while protecting the state’s residents. The only thing he’s advocated strongly for in the past few years that I can remember is holding a hearing on the NFL spying case, and now holding a hearing on the high school computer spying case.

Can’t wait for Specter to start telling campaign crowds that no one really cares that Sestak spent 31 years in the Navy, that being in the Navy isn’t a real job anyway, and that health care is a dead issue. That’ll pull in plenty of votes!

Sestak looked tired and world-weary in his ad. Maybe his people shouldn’t include him anymore.

Anyway, jobs and the economy are the big issues now. Specter’s ads touched on these issues a little, but Sestak’s ad didn’t. (Specter has definitely brought jobs to the area). All Sestak’s ad did was talk about his bio. NEWS FLASH: Most people who run for federal office have impressive resumes! As I’ve said before – Sestak’s ads need to show that he’s running for something and provide some details. Health care reform as already passed. (Thankfully).

of course its joes goal to use his military service as a prop, which would be scummy. Wonder if he’ll have his winter bombers jacket on… of if he’ll show up in his white admirals suit.

Sestak seems to be the one that cares the most about his 31 years. He mentions it every chance he gets, whether it is relative to the question or not.

Sestak’s career isn’t as shiny and polished as he would like everyone to believe. Sestak is supposed to be running as a Congressman looking to be a Senator, not a 31 year Navy guy with a blank political resume looking for a career change.

What worked in 2006 doesn’t apply here. Sestak never truly understood all the factors that lead to his first victory. His hard work and unexamined biography were a part, but there were a lot of missteps. Sestak is foolishly repeating the missteps as well, but without the back-stop of the people that covered for him in 2006.

“While Joe Sestak is running a positive TV ad about his accomplishments and his agenda for changing Washington, Specter has launched a Republican-style negative campaign in his TV ads,” Sestak spokesman Jonathon Dworkin asserted earlier. “It will speak volumes to Democrats that Joe Sestak is running on his record, while Arlen Specter runs away from his.” Hmmm…

Mere days ago, Representative Sestak was touting the truthfulness and veracity of reactionary Republican Rick Santorum. Republican Santorum’s accusations against Senator Specter were well-founded, Sestak claimed. Now, his long-suffering spokesperson is ranting about “Republican-style negative campaign tactics.” The epitomy of hypocrisy, but given Sestak’s penchant for mendacity, not surprising. Apparently, consistency is of no consequence to Representative Sestak. Meanwhile, what, precisely, is the “record” that Dworkin is referring to? Are the denizens of the 7th District better off now than they were prior to Sestak’s ascension? Clearly not, largely because Representative Sestak is an abysmal failure who has no significant legislative accomplishments. And Dworkin’s appeal to steadfast Democrats? Given that Representative Sestak has wrongfully accused the incumbent Democratic President of bribery (and has done so repeatedly), this is a truly audacious attempt at partisan outreach! Of course, Sestak has never been lacking in audacity or temerity.

Perhaps GOP Hack Sestak can hed some light on these various inconsistencies and incongruitites. More likely, however, he will desperately attempt to gloss over them.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0410/36081.html#ixzz0lff27lL6

“GOP Hack Sestak” – I like that tag line. It seems to fit him.

All Sestak has done this campaign is attack our democratic president, attack the democratic party elite, and the democratic base. All the while trying to weaken Specter (the presumptive democratic nominee) for the general election against Toomey.

Who’s the real democrat in this race?!? It’s clearly not Sestak! Good riddance on May 18th.

Mr. Diano: “Sestak is not a particularly truthful person.” Unquestionably the understatement of the relatively new century! Like the nefarious labor racketeers with he whom he has aligned himself, GOP Hack Sestak has a penchant for misrepresentation and deceit. The anti-war themes of his 2006 campaign have long since been forgotten. Such themes were politically expedient in 2006, and were quickly cast aside when the anti-war fervor subsided. The aforementioned anti-war themes did not prevent him, of course, from accepting substantial contributions from avaricious arms manufacturers (such as Delaware County-based Dragonfly Pictures) and continually voting to fund the nation’s ongoing war efforts. Political expediency, not principle, has been the guiding force in Sestak’s undistinguished, unremarkable political career thus far. Mercifully, his career will soon be coming to an ignominious end.

Hopefully, Sestak will continue to devote sizable sums to TV advertisements. As I mentioned previously, this will be an optimal outcome for Sestak’s many foes. Senator Specter commands an extraordinary advantage over the 7th District megalomaniac in terms of resources. The Senator can easily match Sestak dollar for dollar. Any ads, therefore, are likely to do little more than exhaust Sestak’s resources, and render him utterly powerless. He would thus be an impecunious lame duck – impotent and vulnerable, just the way his foes want him.

Sestak, however, is lacking in funds v. Specter. Wasn’t $3 million of his $5 million left over from his 2008 congressional run?!? I haven’t done the math, but…hasn’t both Specter and Toomey actually raised more NEW money this election cycle than Sestak?

AND isn’t Sestak’s well running dry? 3 consecutive quarters of declining contributions! Like I said before, I think Sestak’s campaign peaked last summer.

Mr. Wiggles: It is nauseating, isn’t it? This republic has been served dutifly by hordes of brave young soldiers throughout its history, but if you listen to the egomaniacal Joe Sestak, you would think he single-handedly defended the populace from potential threats! His constant boasting is an affront to others who have served this republic in various ways, and those who continue to do so. Lacking any genuine legislative accomplishments, Sestak is compelled to repeatedly remind the general public of the DEBT it owes him. Nauseating – and truthfully, quite pathetic.

Arlen Smells: Voicing opposition to Senator Specter is one thing. That is right that you enjoy as a citizen. Suggesting that an individual can no longer contribute to society once they have reached a certain age, however, is not only patently false, but deeply offensive. Shall we simply cast all senior citizens aside, and deny them the opportunity to participate in the process of democracy?! America’s senior citizens have more knowledge to impart than you can possibly imagine, and they should enjoy the SAME rights and privileges that YOU do. And that includes seeking public office. Sestak’s minions have been launching these unconscionable attacks on the supposedly “feeble” Senator Specter for some time, and it is a disgrace. Sestak, it appears, is a sociopath without a conscience. He will utter any words, insult any segment of the population, to further his own narrow ends.

Elderly Americans are just as capable of serving in public office as any other citizens. These deplorable remarks must stop. We must demonstrate respect for ALL citizens, irrespective of their age. Period.

Since when do Democrats swiftboat Democrats? Arlen can’t seem to shake his Republican mindset, which makes sense since he’s been a Republican for thirty years. At the end of the day, the only question is whether you’d rather have 80 year old, Republican/Democrat career politician Arlen in there, or someone who got in it to actually help people, like Joe. Isn’t that what politics should be about?

Sestak is banking on the youth vote who don’t show up for non-Obama primaries.
The seniors do show up, and they aren’t going to buy “too old to serve”.

Fresh air-
It’s only Swift-boating if it isn’t true.
Specter’s charges in the ad are dead on and documented.

Fighting aside: Sestake tells a nice story in that ad. If only it were true.

Oh, and it’s funny because Sestak definitely had one of the best political ads I can remember back in ’06. It was the one with all the people who served with him beating back Weldon’s attacks… great ad. Funny that now he comes out with, well this.

Candidate prejudices aside, it’s a nice introductory ad — for January. It takes time, which Sestak doesn’t have, for name recognition and association with the office the candidates is seeking to be absorbed by the majority of voters.
Only then do those voters begin comparing positions on the issues along with other factors which influence their choice between candidates.

I don’t think that Sestak can win this; but Specter still could lose it, possibly by being overly negative (like some of the extreme and far fetched comments on this blog).

Fresh Air: That’s odd – I thought Representative Sestak was the one who has repeatedly accused the incumbent Democratic President of the United States of attempted bribery. So Sestak’s conduct -making ludicrous allegations against the LEADER of the Democratic Party – are permissible, but Specter’s ads are not?

EK: Your point is well-taken.