Speaking during a smaller-dollar general reception at the Pennsylvania Convention Center before a minimum $1,000-per-head dinner, Obama echoed the argument Sestak has made for months—that the two-term congressman an outsider not beholden to rigid ideology.

“The choice in this election could not be clearer and the stakes could not be higher,’’ Obama said to a general reception audience of several hundred supporters, according to a poll report. “Everybody’s been talking about insiders in Washington, well, Joe’s not one of the insiders who’s been part of the problem. Instead he’s been solving problems in Washington. He didn’t go there with a liberal or a conservative agenda—he went to serve the people of Pennsylvania just like he’s served his country for the past three decades.

“In Washington they make the distinction between show horses and workhorses,” added Obama, who supported Senator Arlen Specter before Specter defeated him in the May primary. “And Joe’s a workhorse.”

A Democratic source told pool reporter Tom Fitzgerald that the events would raise more than $500,000.

Continuing his efforts to set up a contrast with Republicans, Obama said: “The easiest thing to do is to not put forward any specifics and plans, but just try to ride that anger and fear all the way to the election, and that’s what’s happening right now. … A lot has changed since this last election but what hasn’t changed is the choice that we face in this country: It’s still fear vs hope, it’s still past vs. future, it’s still the choice between sliding backwards and moving forward.’’

Republicans reacted quickly to Obama’s visit, with GOP candidates seeking to raise extra cash ahead of his appearance, the state party gathering reporters on a conference call and the national party denouncing Sestak as an Obama ally.

“Joe Sestak’s blind support for the President’s failed economic agenda has provided nothing but… further job loss and 9.2 percent unemployment in Pennsylvania,” Republican National Committee spokesman Parish Braden said in a statement. “With President Obama’s campaign visit for Sestak, voters are wondering if they will take the time to address the fact that thousands of jobs have been lost in the state since passage of the… Obama-Sestak ‘stimulus’ package.”

It started first thing Monday morning, when Tom Corbett’s gubernatorial campaign e-mailed supporters that only 12 hours remained until Obama hit the campaign trail with Democratic Senate candidate Joe Sestak. Corbett’s campaign set a goal of raising $20,000 in response to Obama’s visit, his finance director wrote, “to send him a message… his failed policies aren’t welcome here!”

Pat Toomey’s Senate campaign set the same $20,000 goal. “The Obama-Pelosi-Sestak agenda has moved our country in the wrong direction and it’s prolonged our economic downturn,” Toomey wrote in a morning e-mail to supporters.

Before noon, Toomey’s campaign told supporters it had reached that goal, and was aiming for $30,000. And near the end of the day, almost $50,000 had come in. In an e-mail to supporters, Toomey campaign manager said it was “one of our biggest days in online fundraising ever.”

“And with so much still left to be done, and too many families struggling to get by, we need to keep America moving forward—which means I need you to support Manan Trivedi for Congress,” Obama wrote about the 6th District candidate to his Keystone State supporters.

Congressman Paul Kanjorski (D-11) also got the nod, also with the same language. The Kanjorski campaign seemed to greet the endorsement, well, quietly. “The congressman welcomes the endorsement of anyone who shares the same values and principles,” Kanjorski’s spokesman told The Times Leader. The campaign didn’t publicize the endorsement, as friend-of-the-site Alex Isenstadt noted on Politico.

Republican Lou Barletta’s campaign made sure to note the quiet reception, contrasting it with 2008, when Obama cut an ad for Kanjorski—and when the wave of Democrats he helped turn out seemed to pull the longtime incumbent over the finish line in a tough race. The campaign claimed it was just Obama’s way of saying thanks, after Kanjorski was effectively the deciding vote in the House on health care reform.

“It’s political payback for Kanjorski’s deciding vote to pass the health care takeover earlier this year,” Barletta wrote in a fundraising e-mail to supporters. “But even the President can’t save Kanjorski this year. We, the people, deserve better, and pooling our resources can fight the establishment liberal special interests in Kanjo’s pocket.”

Meanwhile, Democrats have a new attack line against Republican Senate candidate Pat Toomey: they’re trying to tie him to the Chan brothers, one of whom was a former Enron director and had to settle a $168-million lawsuit against the company.

Greg Sargent at The Plum Line reported on this new tack before it hit the ground. Basically, Toomey worked for a financial firm in Hong Kong in 1991, and the company was owned by the Chan brothers. Democrats say Ronnie Chan is a shady character, and want to tie his lack of enthusiasm for human rights and democracy to the former congressman.

“As the old quote goes ‘you’re only as good as the company you keep,’” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesperson Deirdre Murphy said in a statement. “In Pat Toomey’s case, this means having as a former boss a controversial Hong Kong billionaire financier, who disdains the American political system and was on the board of Enron when the company was accused of defrauding shareholders.  With associates like this, Toomey has a lot of explaining to do to Pennsylvania voters.”

Toomey’s campaign scoffed at the display of Democrats reaching back 20 years to try and make a point. There doesn’t seem to be any evidence that Toomey did anything for the company other than research on capital in Asian countries.

“The Democrats must be getting pretty desperate to dig up what Pat did twenty years ago,” Toomey campaign manager Mark Harris told The Plum Line. “What voters in Pennsylvania are concerned about is [Democratic nominee] Joe Sestak’s liberal voting record in the last three years.”

And lastly, there was all kinds of news Friday in the world of Congressman Chris Carney (D-10)—and we’re not even counting the revelation that his Republican opponent Tom Marino appears to have fibbed big time about a Department of Justice letter he claims to have.

First, Carney won the endorsement of the National Rifle Association, which called him a “solid defender of the Second Amendment who will stand up for the rights of gun owners in Pennsylvania.”

Later, we got hold of a new Carney campaign radio ad, which keeps hitting Marino on this whole Louis DeNaples thing, taking a similar tack to his recent TV ad. Click here to listen to the radio ad.

And to round things out, the conservative seniors’ group 60 Plus Association has added Carney to the list of Pennsylvania Democrats its targeting in a TV campaign. Having already gone after Kathy Dahlkemper and Paul Kanjorski on the issue of health care, the group now has a very similar ad airing against Carney.

See the ad below. All three are basically identical in their content, so we’ll fact-check them as a unit soon.

Stay tuned.

While Obama’s support for Democratic hopefuls is generally assumed, it’s more rare for him to issue individual endorsements to House candidates. Lentz was one of the first elected officials in Pennsylvania to back Obama’s bid for the White House.

“With so much still left to be done, and too many families struggling to get by, we need to keep America moving forward—which means I need you to support Bryan Lentz for Congress,” Obama said in a statement. “You can go door to door to ask folks to support Bryan. You can make calls to voters in your area, and make sure they get to the polls. And you can spread the word about the importance of voting for Bryan Lentz to your family, friends, and neighbors.”

Lentz, a two-term state lawmaker, faces Republican Pat Meehan and independent Jim Schneller in the 7th District, which is currently No. 1 on the pa2010.com Congressional Power Rankings.

“If Republicans win in November, their agenda is simple: take us backward to the failed policies of the last decade,” Obama said. “We cannot let that happen, and that’s why we all need to fight to get Bryan Lentz to Washington, to keep America—and Pennsylvania—moving forward.”

Obama has made more than a couple trips to Philly recently, and he’s coming again next month. In an announcement that slipped through the proverbial cracks at pa2010.com Central last week, it looks like Obama will headline a Democratic National Committee rally Oct. 10. That’s one of five so-called “Moving America Forward” rallies that Obama will hold in the closing weeks before Election Day, as he seeks to gin up excitement among Democratic activists in the hopes of narrowing that troublesome enthusiasm gap.

“President Obama is committed to delivering the change Americans voted for in 2008,” DNC chairman Tim Kaine said in a statement. “With the help of Democrats in Congress, he has worked hard to get our country back on the right track, but there is still more to be done to repair the damage caused by nearly a decade of failed Republican policies. That’s why President Obama is working hard to elect and reelect strong Democratic partners in Congress and in the states to help move America forward.”

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania competitive Senate race was all about “extremism” on Monday. Republican Pat Toomey has long tried to paint Democrat Joe Sestak as a liberal extremist, while Sestak’s campaign has said it’s Toomey who is out of step. Really, the two candidates are almost as ideologically far apart as any two politicians can be, and one person’s extremist is another person’s standard bearer.

But on Monday the focus was in Harrisburg, where Toomey held a news conference to lambaste his opponent for taking campaign cash from Citizens for Global Solutions. The group bills itself as dedicated to “educating Americans about our global interdependence.” But Toomey’s campaign labeled it a “radical, left-wing group,” noting that it advocates some moves toward greater global governance and has spoken of a so-called “global tax.” Democrats like Joe Biden, Rahm Emanuel and Bob Casey have returned money from the group, and Toomey says Sestak should do the same.

“Congressman Sestak has adopted one extreme position after another, but now his ties to the extreme left-wing group Citizens for Global Solutions raises new questions,” Toomey said in a statement. “Does Congressman Sestak support a global tax in additional to all the other tax increases he has supported? Does Congressman Sestak really want to double foreign aid to corrupt and oppressive regimes in a time of sky-rocketing deficits? And will Congressman Sestak join Senator Bob Casey and many others in renouncing his support for this radical group and returning the contributions he received? I hope Congressman Sestak will come forward and answer these questions right away.”

Sestak’s campaign said the congressman understands the importance of American sovereignty. The folks at Team Sestak also pointed us to a contribution that Congressman Jim Gerlach (R-6) received from the same group—Toomey has campaigned with Gerlach.

“Joe Sestak was proud to defend this nation for 31 years in Navy,” Sestak spokesman Jonathon Dworkin said. “He commanded a U.S. aircraft carrier battle group to protect America, and has a unique appreciation of the sacredness of ensuring the sovereign security of our country.  This unsubstantiated attack is another strange example of the extremes Congressman Toomey represents both in his attempts to distract and hide from his own record and in demagoguing. What else can you expect from a Wall Street trader who wants to privatize Social Security and eliminate taxes on Wall Street banks and oil companies, while increasing the tax burden on struggling middle class families?”

The state Democratic Party also chimed in, noting that Toomey’s voting record puts him to the right of former Senator Rick Santorum and that he helped bounce moderates out of the GOP during his time as president of the conservative Club for Growth.

“Even Rick Santorum thinks that Pat Toomey is too far out of the mainstream for Pennsylvania,” state party spokesman Mark Nicastre said.

And apparently it’s never too late in the election cycle to issue one of those debate challenges we’ve all come to love. On Monday it was Democrat Manan Trivedi’s campaign in the 6th District saying it wants at least six debates with the aforementioned Gerlach. The campaign wants all the debates to be open to the press and the public.

“I invite Congressman Gerlach to join me, in front of the press and public, to explain each of our plans to represent the 6th District, and how we plan to get them done in Congress,” Trivedi said in a statement. “It’s clear that there is plenty that he and I disagree on, and the choice in this election couldn’t be clearer. It’s time we present ourselves side-by-side in an honest and open debate so that the people of this district can see that for themselves. I know that each person’s vote is a precious and personal thing, something that should never be taken for granted, and I want to ensure that each voter has the opportunity to compare us and make an informed decision.”

Gerlach’s campaign, for its part, seems to think that two debates will suffice just fine.

“We have already agreed to two debates, which Trivedi knows,” Gerlach campaign spokesman Mark Campbell said. “We look forward to hearing him explain his well documented ‘fringe’ left wing positions such as, why Trivedi wants to raise taxes, supports tripling the national debt and cutting Medicare for seniors by $500 billion and a single-payer socialized medicine scheme which will ration care.”

PoliticsPA reports that Obama will be in Philadelphia Sept. 20 to headline a fundraiser for the two-term congressman. It will mark the first time Obama has campaign for Sestak since the congressman unseated Senator Arlen Specter in the May primary. Obama backed Specter and the White House tried to nudge Sestak out of the race.

Obama is expected to hold several events in Pennsylvania that day.

“We’re honored that the president would do an event with Joe during his trip to Pennsylvania,” Sestak spokesman Jonathon Dworkin told the Web site. “He and Joe may have had their differences, but they can agree that it is critical to elect a senator who will put Pennsylvania’s working families first.”

Among the troublesome signs for Democrats:

•Almost 60 percent of Pennsylvanians say the state is heading in the wrong direction, while the 30 percent of residents who say things are moving in the right direction is the lowest in 15 years.

•A third of Pennsylvanians say their personal finances are worse off than a year ago.

•Only 37 percent of Pennsylvanians rate President Obama’s job performance as positive, and less than a third say the same about Gov. Ed Rendell.

Make no mistake, the winds are blowing against the Democratic Party. Now it’s up to them to just run better campaigns, all the way down to the wire.

Meanwhile, our friends at CQ-Roll Call have gone through the list of House races in play, and they’ve changed the forecast for a few Pennsylvania districts. The race in the 3rd District between incumbent Democrat Kathy Dahlkemper and Republican Mike Kelly has been moved from Leans Democratic to Tossup. The race in the 8th District between incumbent Democrat Patrick Murphy and Republican Mike Fitzpatrick has been moved from Likely Democratic to Leans Democratic. And the 6th District has been downgraded, with the race between incumbent Republican Jim Gerlach and Democrat Manan Trivedi moved from Leans Republican to Likely Republican.

And finally, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dan Onorato was still doing some tax-talk Thursday, after spending the previous two days hitting Republican rival Tom Corbett on the subject. In case you haven’t been paying attention, Corbett has signed a no-tax-pledge, which even some Republican leaders doubt he can uphold and which Onorato calls a “gimmick.” But appearing in Fox29 Thursday morning, Onorato did stress the importance of cutting spending before looking for opportunities to raise revenue.

This came after he verbally committed not to raise income taxes or sales taxes.

“The state’s broke, people are broke, this is no time talk about new revenues,” Onorato said (video embedded below). “Let’s get our expenditures under control.”

Toomey started off by saying he is “deeply concerned about the direction we’re heading,” which he said is “being driven by extreme policies that are coming from one-party domination of government in Washington.”

“And this extreme ideologically driven agenda is preventing the strong economic recovery and job creation that we should be having,” Toomey said, railing against the growing federal deficit. “It’s time we put some real checks and balances back in place this November.”

Sestak’s campaign quickly struck back, turning Toomey’s comments that the county should “stop digging” into a hole back on the Republican, with some help by comments from former President Bill Clinton, who campaigned for Sestak earlier in the week.

“I think the president should be accessible, should answer questions that aren’t pre-screened, but I think there should be a little bit of dignity to the presidency,” Rendell said on MSNBC‘s “Morning Joe.”

We’re assuming Rendell’s rule doesn’t apply to governors, considering that the former Philadelphia mayor is a longtime fixture on “Eagles Postgame Live.” Rendell was in favor of Obama going on “Morning Joe.” Check out a video clip of his remarks at bottom.

Meanwhile, Congressman Jim Gerlach (R-6) is giving big bucks to the National Republican Congressional Committee. Gerlach has given $100,000 so far this cycle, the latest cash coming in the form of a $44,000 contribution made during an NRCC fundraiser on Tuesday. Politico first reported news of the contribution, which took us by surprise considering that Gerlach represents a Democratic-leaning district in the Philly suburbs and is facing another stiff challenge, this time from Reading doctor Manan Trivedi. We were doubly surprised in light of Gerlach’s relatively modest cash-on-hand advantage.

Mark Campbell, Gerlach’s longtime political adviser, told us the same thing he told Politico: that the contribution was made partly because an internal campaign poll found Gerlach holding a big lead over Trivedi, 54 percent to 29 percent. “We are never overconfident, and we always run like we are 10 points down,” he said. “But it’s safe to say Jim Gerlach’s views represent the values of the taxpayers of the 6th District.”

We don’t necessarily doubt the results of the poll—Trivedi has done barely an iota of paid media. But it’s worth noting that just earlier this week, friend-of-the-site Alex Isenstadt reported that Gerlach is among a number of “endangered incumbents” being boosted in fundraising call sessions by party leaders. And Gerlach could effectively get that money back if the NRCC ends up doing independent ad buys on his behalf. Trivedi spokeswoman Lindsay Fritchman pointed this out in pushing her own narrative. “This transfer pretty much demonstrates how much trouble [Gerlach] is in,” she told Politico. “He’s handing them the money because he knows that’s the only way he can beat Manan.”

The race is currently No. 4 on our Congressional Power Rankings.

And speaking of House seats that are in play, the National Journal has identified two Keystone State districts as being among the 40 seats most likely to switch parties this fall. One is the open seat in the 7th District, where Democrat Bryan Lentz and Republican Pat Meehan are vying in the state’s most competitive House race. The other is the 11th District, where incumbent Democrat Paul Kanjorski is trying to fend off yet another challenge from Republican Lou Barletta.

Politico reports that the group, the Emergency Committee for Israel, is taking to the airwaves this week with the first of many ads to come. And its initial 30-second spot, which will run during a Phillies game, hits the Democratic Senate nominee over his Israel policies.

“Does Congressman Joe Sestak understand Israel is American’s ally?” asks the ad by the group, which is led by Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, among others.

The ad goes on to revive criticism of Sestak’s 2007 speech before the Council on American-Islamic Relations, using that to claim Sestak “raised money for an anti-Israel organization.” The ad also hits Sestak for joining in a letter that called for more humanitarian aide to the Gaza Strip during the latest war there. Sestak has defended engaging CAIR, noted that Gov. Ed Rendell attended the same 2007 event, and said his call for humanitarian aide didn’t change his support for Israel. The ad comes as Sestak and Republican Pat Toomey are set to court suburban Jewish voters who often supported Senator Arlen Specter.

“I believe Israel is our strongest ally and our vital ally in the Middle East and in the world,” Sestak recently told The Jewish Exponent. “The more secure Israel can feel about our support, the more secure we will be able to feel as we engage the world to work toward a two-state solution.”

Sestak spokeswoman April Mellody waved off the attack, telling Politico: “Joe is a strong supporter of the state of Israel. His record is clear on the matter and in stark contrast to his opponent who voted against aid for Israel. It’s political silly season so its not surprising these conservatives are trying to distort Joe’s record.”

See the ad below.