Nice ad. Nothing remarkable about it, but it does a great job of separating the two candidates stylistically. Casey’s performance is very low key in the spot; nothing is forced or preachy or “in your face.” Santorum, even when he tries to be avuncular, can’t manage it…because he simply isn’t like that.

This is a good way for Casey to start. Voters fed up with Ricky will find themselves saying, “Hey, I like that guy Casey.”

Pilt

The CW has it that Casey is “boring”, but that is just fine with the voters here because “boring” to the pundit class is sincere and down-to-earth to Pennsylvanians.

pd

Casey will get crushed in November. We’re looking at 6 more years of Rick!

Yes Virginia… we know that Ricky pays you big bucks to say things like that.

PD –

Amen to that. Casey, as evinced in this spot, at least “appears” to be a regular guy. Rick can no longer even attempt to stake out that territory. In esssence, his unending blathering and bloviating and his smug incursions into the public view; “Well, if people want their Senator during jury duty…” “Public schools create weird socialization…” and on and on have left him unable to retake that most coveted ground.

At the same time, Rick can’t claim much in terms of legislation, either.

What is he left with? The GOP red meat for this year; immigration, flag burning, gay marriage and whatever else they invent…

Pilt

So Bland Bobby cuts a “nice” ad? Tremendous. He can talk “balanced budgets” (read: tax increases, not spending cuts) and “change the tone” all he wants. His true test comes when Santorum calls him out on each and every one of his talking points in the fall. Santorum could turn around right now and put out the word that Casey is already aiming for a tax hike (I know, I know…“only for those making over $200K a year, which evidentially is the Democrat-set threshold for labeling someone “wealthy”). The point is that it’ll take quite a bit more than one good ad for Casey actually to win anything here. If the debates come and go and Casey survives relatively unscathed, I will be the first partisan to admit that I was wrong. However, my prediction is that Santorum crushes the Casey house of cards when the two meet head-on later this year.

unfortunately Santorum isn’t playing only cards with Casey… he has statewide trends that show he is unpopular. I really don’t think Casey enters into this equation until people say, “I don’t like the status quo. What are my alternatives?” Bob Casey is a reasonable alternative and by that point people have expressed their displeasure with the status quo meaning that a reasonable alternative is all they need.

Pgh –

Presidential elections may swing on debates…but statewide races never do. No one watches. No one cares. This battle will be fought in :30 chunks over the next few months. And while issues are important to many people, so is the “I like that guy” factor. Santorum, after all these years of buffoonery, is not that guy. Casey is.

Pilt

Listen, Santorum has just weasled around till now. I am sure he will show some teeth shortly, but I don’t see how that helps him. He is a liar and people have come to realize that. They expect him to slander Casey as best he can. In true Santorum/Rove fashion, if he can’t find something he will just make it up. Casey is just a better man for the job. He is sincere, intelligent, well spoken and knows who he represents.

Santorum is none of those things. He can mix it up with the best of them, but that is his only strength. His books are bizarre. He makes ludicrous claims to the media about people looking in his windows and 12 year old WMD’s that are not even functional. He can never hide from his K-Street involvemnt. Would he win a debate? Depends on the format. If there is a good moderator who can control his outbursts, he doesn’t have a chance. If he is allowed to constantly interrupt and talk over Casey, maybe? A debate isn’t going to win this for Santorum. He wants to debate so he can throw out confusing, misleading statistics that cannot be thoroughly reponded to in a debate format. It’s a Rove trick. We know what his record is and what he stands for, so I can’t see a debate being that helpful to him. He will just try to yell louder to show people what a fighter he is. The problem is he doesn’t fight for the everage person, he fights for big business, and that just doesn’t get it!