Commentary: Are you being played this election?

October 30, 2010 at 11:22 am

Election Day is Tuesday (Millions of Americans have been voting early across the country but Pennsylvania is way, way behind the times), and the frustrations of voters are about to come to a boil.  Before everyone goes out to vote with their gut, it might be good to step back and think with your head.

Voters who have rallied around the cause of “throw the bums out” should think about who they are trying to…

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Who’s “Qualified” to be a Politician?

October 27, 2010 at 10:29 am

Qualified

I heard somebody talking about the upcoming election and they said that neither Tom Corbett or Dan Onorato were qualified to be governor.  In my best Seth Meyers impersonation, all I could think to ask was really?

Much has been made about whether candidates are qualified for elected office over the past few years.  People criticized Barack Obama’s qualifications because he had been a US Senator for less years than Lost had been on…

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We’re all experts

September 30, 2010 at 12:33 pm

October is right around the corner, and that means an inundation of polling results from across the Commonwealth and the country. Every day there are new polls in the race for senate, governor, congress, and quite possibly, regional dogcatcher. With those polls will come feelings of validation, disbelief and everything in between.

Here’s a tip to decipher the validity of polling: If a candidate says “the only poll that matters is on Election Day,” they…

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Swinging for the fences

September 27, 2010 at 10:45 am

Baseball playoffs are finally approaching. While commentators on ESPN will say that defense and pitching wins championships, the fact is that you can’t win if you don’t swing the bat.

The same goes for politics

There is the old phrase “go down swinging,” but the truth of the matter is that you win swinging, too. That means bringing the fight to your opponent and giving people a reason to vote for you instead of just…

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Defining the party

September 15, 2010 at 1:58 pm

“I’m not a part of any organized political party, I’m a Democrat.”
-Will Rogers

In 2010, the above would be a better description of Republicans.

The party of Arlen Specter, John Heinz, and Dwight Eisenhower is now the party of Sarah Palin, Joe Miller, Christine O’Donnell, Sharon Angle, Joe Paladino, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Pat Toomey. In 2010, both Richard Nixon’s and Ronald Reagan’s views would get them kicked out of the party,…

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Social media and social responsibility

September 10, 2010 at 8:30 am

This weekend, a minister in Florida was planning to burn copies of the Koran. This provocative plan garnered a lot of attention and condemnation, eventually leading to the church canceling the event. However, maybe more notable is the fact that the a church with only 50 members is getting national and world attention at all. That is the new reality of new media.

YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and the growing penetration of access to the Internet…

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A Labor Day interview

September 7, 2010 at 10:25 am

Labor Day parades across the country very often include candidates and elected officials as part of the unofficial start of the campaign season. However, an even bigger contingent at the Labor Day festivities is organized labor itself. Knowing that labor unions will be very involved in the upcoming elections, I decided to talk with a union member who is involved with labor’s efforts leading up to November.

Instead of talking with somebody who worked at…

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The problem with Tom’s tax pledge

September 3, 2010 at 8:56 am

Recently, there has been a lot of talk about Republican Tom Corbett’s pledge to not raise taxes if elected governor. Democrat Dan Onorato, for his part, has called out Corbett as being something of a hypocrite and insinuating that his rival couldn’t and wouldn’t possibly hold firm to that pledge. I think Onorato is wrong, and that Corbett would in fact stick to a rigid no-tax pledge.

And that’s what worries me.

Don’t get me…

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What enthusiasm gap?

August 31, 2010 at 12:56 pm

It seems that every story nowadays is a political obituary for Democrats at the hands of a revitalized Republican Party. Given recent polling, the intensity of the Tea Party movement and the historical trend of the president’s party losing seats in midterm election years, it’s understandable for Democrats to be anxious.

However, I saw none of this anxiety Monday when Senator Bob Casey joined 6th District congressional candidate Manan Trivedi in Ardmore.

I think I…

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Think globally, vote locally

August 27, 2010 at 7:00 am

In 1994, Republicans took over Congress. People look at that election and assume voters just pulled the lever for Republicans, but they forget a key qualifier to that election, this election, and every election. To win, you need a candidate, and in 1994, the Republicans had candidates.

The Republican Party had spent years prior to 1994 harvesting candidates for offices from state Representative down to school board. Those candidates for local offices ended up becoming…

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