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Think back to the fall of 2007. Remember how conventional wisdom called for a general election with Hillary Clinton facing Rudy Giuliani? Hillary was going to win the Democratic primary, the CW said, because she had a decades-long head start, name recognition, support of Democratic leaders and tremendous fundraising ability. Okay, here's Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell on the Ed Show. See if this sounds familiar: Rendell: I'm an admirer of Joe Sestak.....Joe should not run for the Senate in the Democratic primary, he'd get killed. And let me tell you why he'd get killed. Number one, Arlen Specter's been going around PA for three decades, as the Senator. He goes into every one of the 67 counties each and every year, and he holds town meetings, and he does constituent service, and he's never asked whether people are Republican or Democrat. Last three weeks or so, we've been having regional conferences with elected Democratic Party chairs, and elected Democratic officials, in every region of the state. It's unbelievable how many of them know Arlen personally, and admired him and supported him, even though he was a Republican in the past. You can't buy that, and you can't overcome that in one campaign. It's been thirty years. Number two, Arlen Specter will raise two, three, four times as much money as Joe Sestak. Number three, Arlen Specter has the support of the President and the Vice President, a President who's got a 90% approval rating among registered Democrats in Pennsylvania. Schultz: Governor, you're very strong with that answer tonight. It almost sounds as if Joe Sestak would be making a fool of himself if he were to try this. Would you go that far? Rendell: Well, I wouldn't say making a fool of himself, of course, Joe's a terrific guy, and he's got great credentials. But he's being talked into it by people on the extreme of the party, and they're good people, and they care about the right issues, but they don't represent the broad slice... this is a conservative state.... ....Joe Sestak runs against Arlen Specter, he's out of the Congress, after just two short terms. We will lose a terrific Congressman, and when he loses to Arlen, he fades into political obscurity.
Okay, now read that again and replace "Sestak" with "Obama" and "Senate" for "Presidency" and "Specter" with "Hillary" and see if the parallels aren't striking. I'm not saying the analogy is perfect. Obama is a very dynamic candidate and Sestak may not be able to pull it off. But we shouldn't be told: 1. Specter is inevitable 2. Specter is connected 3. Specter has more money 4. Pennsylvania Voters Don't Count Incidentally, we're the extremists Rendell refers to. You can watch Sestak on Hardball from earlier this month inside.
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