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... but said only political insiders and journalists are paying attention to the early jousting in what is expected to be the premier race of next year's midterm elections.

Maybe that's because "political insiders and journalists" are hoping to pass off the defeat of a conservative Republican in a decidedly "Blue" state as a big loss for President Bush and the GOP.

I don't know how they can even call PA "blue" when it seems to lean Republican. They haven't elected a Demo US senator since 1991, the House delegation has a GOP majority, and Repubs control both houses of the legislature! Why the gashead voters there have voted (narrowly) for Demo presidential candidates in the last 4 elections is beyond me.

Here is another "journalist" who is reporting on an "unpopular war." Surprising that it is unpopular when we are winning. Just maybe if the media bias was not so strong the war would not be so unpopular.

Decidely Blue is a bit of a misnomer. It's blue primarly because of Philly and one or two other counties surrounding it and Pittsburg. Otherwise, it is very red. It depends on the level of voter turnout in the cities whether or not the state as a whole goes red or blue. Voter turnout was very high in Philly in 2004 and it went 85% to Kerry. Turnout in the Red rural areas was also very high but they couldn't pull off the numbers (despite lines of several hours duration in those areas) to overcome the Philly numbers. The margin was, however, less than the Dems were confidently prediction even with the high Philly turnout.

So, for Santorum, he's got to get back the Red middle and northern areas that he has lost ground in. So far he's not doing that. Instead, just last week we got emails from him telling us how he's a "compassionate" conservative (and oddly reminiscent of Al Gore, using the term like he himself had thought it up) and how big spending is wonderful as long as its for the "right" causes. Letters like that aren't going to win back the conservative base who are still ticked off at him for a number of reasons. Specter wins by winning the moderate Democrat vote and those conservatives willing to hold their nose and pull the lever. Santorum isn't going to win many moderate Dems and he definitely doesn't have a shot without the conservative base and so far, he's not doing much to generate enthusiasm among them. Also consider....of the executive branch, the House and the Senate, conservatives are probably most dissatisfied with the Senate.....and Santorum is #3 there, so he is probably also get a bit of the blame for the constant selling out of the conservative agenda by the Senate in the name of "consensus and upholding the comity of the chamber" or some such drivel.