Will Barack Obama’s properties from 2008 (Twitter, Facebook friends, email list) impact the 2010 midterm race?

update: 4:18 FWIW …

FLOTUS apparently travels with a fashion
assistant, who was originally from Chicago. The assistant forgot the make
up case on the plane and had to run back and get it.

Update: 3:14

Media Watching: Sestak leads Toomey by +4 since 8am. Data is defined by combining and weighing blog, web, & other internet posts. #paelect We’ve been watching our alerts and research for 2 weeks steady. Up until today, the media listening stream has favored Pat Toomey (R).

Update: 2:51

I need to respond to Ben Smith’s story on Politico yesterday. He has a
picture of one campaign brochure that features Joe Sestak less
prominently than Dan Onorato. From this one campaign leaflet, he jumps
to the erroneous conclusion that Sestak is not loved by the Democratic
party.
As someone who has stopped by almost daily the Philadelphia office of
Organizing for America, Obama’s get the vote operation, I can tell you
that the Democratic Party is working v just as hard to elect Sestak to
the Senate as they are to elect Onorato as Governor. Every one of the
thousands phone calls made there every day mentions both candidates.
In addition, I have seen all types of configurations on the campaign
literature and some favor Sestak. Each is designed with a target
audience in mind.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1010/Also_Sestak.html?showall
–
Laura Goldman

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Update: 1:13 pm

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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 the air and then John McCain picked Sarah Palin and his opponents criticized her for being a governor for less time than NHL playoffs normally take to complete.  Naturally, both sides found the attacks of “not qualified” to be simply outrageous.

To put it as unequivocally as possible:  both Dan Onorato and Tom Corbett are qualified to be governor of Pennsylvania.  One may be better prepared, or have better ideas, but both are qualified to be elected.

Also, before I forget to say it, both Joe Sestak and Pat Toomey are qualified to be the next U.S. Senator.

The threshold to be qualified for higher office is extremely low.  While college admissions may demand a minimum SAT score and jobs demand a number of years of experience before they even look at your resume, all you need to be a Governor, Senator, or President is to be old enough and a citizen, and other similarly simple barriers to overcome.  My dad is qualified to be Governor and my neighbor is qualified to be Senator.

The choice in any election isn’t for us to decide if a candidate is qualified for office, but if they are the better option for that office.  A college admissions office might have 5000 applicants for 3000 spots and an employer might have dozens of applicants for one open position.   Meanwhile, in a general election, we only have two, maybe three major candidates for an office.  Even in a primary, the field of candidates might go as high as seven or eight, but not dozens and certainly not thousands.

The two unseen qualifiers really seem to be an ability to raise enough money to be credible and the sheer willingness to run, which has brought some to ask “what normal person would put up with the inane indignities of the electoral process?”  (link:  http://www.slate.com/id/2270651/)  Even committing crimes or being involved in illicit activity is not a disqualifier as seen with the example of David Vitter running and likely winning in Louisiana despite his dalliances with an escort.

People like to expand the question of who is qualified to understanding of issues and personal life experiences.  Howard Dean touted his travels around the world as proof that he was qualified to be President and Mitt Romney touted his past business experience as a qualifier.  George W. Bush’s experience as an oil man was used as a qualifier and a disqualifier in 2000 depending on whether you liked him or hated him (and of course there can never be an in-between in politics.)  People on the left might say that a candidate isn’t qualified for office because they don’t understand the science behind global warming while conservatives may say that a candidate isn’t qualified because they don’t have an adequate understanding of the tax code.

Even with this, I find it hard to see how Corbett and Onorato wouldn’t be considered serious, well-qualified candidates for governor.  One is the state attorney general and the other is the county executive of the second biggest county in the state.

In the end, when somebody says “Candidate X isn’t qualified,” keep in mind that what they likely mean is that they just don’t like the candidate or disagree with their views.

So, with a few weeks left in this election, don’t worry about whether the candidates are qualified for office.  They are.  Just decide who is best prepared, who has the best ideas, and who you think will move the state and country forward.

Then you’ll be a better voter, but no less qualified for the job.

Clinton will headline a get out the vote rally Thursday afternoon at Northampton Community College’s Spartan Center. Less than a week before the election, Clinton will try to motivate voters to come out and support Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan (D) who is challenging three term incumbent Charlie Dent to represent the 15^th Congressional District and Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato who is running for governor against Attorney General Tom Corbett.

Traditionally campaign volunteers spend the weekend before the election phonebanking and canvassing for candidates in a last minute effort rally support for their candidates.

The Democratic Campaign Congressional Committee (DCCC) is committed to Callahan’s race. The DCCC has listed Callahan as one of its 2010 Red to Blue candidates, a list of 29 challengers receiving support for surpassing fundraising goals.

Despite recent Democratic gains in Pennsylvania and nationwide, both Callahan and Onorato have significant ground to make up by Election Day. A PPP poll released Oct. 20 shows Onorato down two points to Corbett and that the so-called “enthusiasm gap” has narrowed to five points, meaning Democrats are more likely to come out to vote.

The polling for Callahan, on the other hand, is all over the place. Muhlenberg College released a poll of likely voters Oct. 14 showing Callahan trailing Dent by 17 points. The DCCC released its own poll Oct. 11 showing the race as a statistical dead heat. As always, internal polls from parties or candidates should be taken with a grain of salt (or two).

Matthew Morrison, who stars on the Fox show “Glee,” will stump for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dan Onorato Saturday.

An afternoon appearance at Carnegie Mellon University will be followed shortly after by an event at Point Park University.

One more has been added to the schedule, and this one is set to go down Oct. 18. It’ll be aired on the local ABC affiliate in Philadelphia, giving Republican Tom Corbett and Democrat Dan Onorato what could potentially be their biggest debate audience of the campaign.

That debate will come just two days after the candidates have their second debate, a televised one in Pittsburgh.

Meanwhile, there’s been a flurry of outside ad buys in the Senate race recently.

First, there was this latest TV spot from conservative group Crossroads GPS, those guys who just love to hit Democrat Joe Sestak on spending.

Then, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chimed in with its latest ad, which tries to frame Republican Pat Toomey as China-friendly outsourcer of jobs.

And to top it all off, Toomey’s buddies at the Club for Growth have yet another ad of their own taking Sestak to task for stimulus spending.

There’s also a new ad in the 15th Congressional District, where Democratic challenger John Callahan is pushing back against criticism from incumbent republican Charlie Dent that he’s not the budget-balancer he claims to be.

Check it out below.

And last but not least, it appears that Republican Mike Fitzpatrick has snagged an endorsement from a local police union. We haven’t yet seen a release from the Fitzpatrick campaign, but The Inquirer reported that FOP Lodge 5 had made its decision.

As The Inky notes, that’s something of a blow for Congressman Patrick Murphy (D-8), who’s the son of a retired cop and has boasted police support before.

The Inquirer reports that Corbett sent Perzel a fundraising letter in June. The letter came on campaign stationery, but was sent to Perzel’s government office.

“John,” the letter said, “will you accept my personal invitation to join the ‘Tom Corbett for Governor’ team, and make an investment in my campaign of $1,500, $1,750 or $2,000?”

Corbett campaign spokesman Kevin Harley said the letter shouldn’t have been sent to any government office, and that Corbett hasn’t been taking contributions from state lawmakers while the investigation is still active.

“In a campaign of this size,” Harley told the newspaper, “hundreds of thousands of appeals and letters are sent out, and our campaign does the best it can to ensure that only the appropriate people get them. If it happened, it shouldn’t have happened.”

Said Perzel: “I don’t think I will be contributing to Tom Corbett for governor at this time.”

The Muhlenberg College/Morning Call survey released Wednesday showed Republican Tom Corbett holding a 11-point lead over Democrat Dan Onorato in the race for governor, 47 percent to 36 percent. Twelve percent of likely voters are still undecided, and Corbett’s edge is one point smaller when those undecided voters are pressed to say which candidate they are leaning toward.

Republican Pat Toomey, meanwhile, holds a seven-point lead over Democrat Joe Sestak in the Senate race, 45 percent to 38 percent. Fifteen percent of likely voters are undecided, and Toomey’s edge stays at seven points when so-called “leaners” are included.

The results are largely unchanged from Muhlenberg’s poll last month. And while some surveys have showed the race tightening in recent weeks, the results are also consistent with what many public polls have found for months.

The survey of 577 likely voters, conducted Sept. 28 to Oct. 4, had a margin of error of four percent.

Click here to see the poll.

Check it out.

During a Harrisburg news conference, Rendell said that Corbett should “should start running against [Democratic nominee] Dan Onorato—not me.” In remarks reported by The Patriot-News and The Tribune-Review, Rendell also questioned the accuracy of Corbett’s TV ads, some of which have already gotten heat from news organizations fact-checking them.

Rendell’s comments came after Corbett’s campaign hit the airwaves with its first ad directly trying Onorato to Rendell.

He said Onorato “has held the line on taxes better than any local government official in the state.”

Corbett’s campaign is up with a new commercial, a 30-second spot that amounts to the strongest effort to date to tie Onorato and Rendell at the hip.

“You want four more years of Rendell’s higher taxes and job losses,” the ad says, “then Dan Onorato is your guy.”

Early Returns 2.0, which first reported the ad, noted several inaccuracies in the spot, including referring to a tax on alcoholic drinks as a tax on “families.”

See the ad below.