Things to ponder, Sept. 23
From the windmill of my mind … You can’t make this stuff up. Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum has been running one of the nastiest negative TV advertisements I’ve ever seen, one in which four actors are playing cards in a smoke-filled jail cell. Santorum’s ad clearing identifies them as being contributors to the campaign of Democrat challenger Bob Casey Jr. But according to the Associated Press, none of the men being portrayed has given any money to Casey’s Senate campaign. Two of them, however, have given contributions to Santorum’s campaign, which in turn donated the cash to nonprofit groups. I wonder if any of those groups is committed to truth in advertising?
Despite the Santorum mudslinging, Casey continues enjoying a comfortable lead in the polls. One of them, the IssuesPA/Pew poll, had Casey leading Santorum by a whopping 47 percent to 28 percent, with 22 percent undecided. Another, the Keystone Poll, had it Casey45 percent, Santorum 38 percent. In either case, it doesn’t appear that Santorum’s negative advertising is going to save the day for the two-term senator.
Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell is an even bigger favorite against GOP challenger Lynn Swann, with Rendell leading 52 percent to 34 percent in the Keystone Poll and crushing Swann 58 percent to 38 percent in the IssuesPA/Pew poll.
My prediction: Casey wins comfortably, and Rendell puts a real hurt on Swann.
People should be reminded that Casey, as state treasurer, sent an attorney to court to assist citizen activist Gene Stilp, who had filed the initial lawsuit against the use of “unvouchered expenses” after last year’s pay raise. I’m told that the attorney was invaluable in articulating the case, in which the Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently ruled unvouchered expenses unconstitutional. To me, that’s another reason to vote for Casey.
Since Reaganomics went into effect in the early 1980s, there’s been a steady, downward slide for most working-class Americans. Most baby boomers like me (and especially those younger than us) don’t get to retire at age 65 with full Social Security benefits, haven’t enjoyed free employer-provided health care benefits for all or most of our working lives, and can’t bank on defined benefit pension plans, if we get any pensions at all. And out of the paychecks we do get, we pay the higher taxes ever, when federal, state and local taxes are all tallied up.
Does anyone out there still think that NAFTA was a good idea? Remember how it was going to greatly aid our economy by expanding opportunities for U.S. businesses in Mexico and Canada? I don’t know of one person employed by a company that’s selling goods or services to either of those countries. But I have seen several businesses move their operations south of the border, to take advantage of lower wages.
Not one new letter from a veteran criticizing us, or me personally, has crossed my desk since it was revealed that state Rep. Bill DeWeese used taxpayer dollars to pay for honorary medals with his name stamped on them. Do you think knowing that fact has changed some minds?