Sestak

The New York Times learns the wrong lesson from Joe Sestak's victory and Blanche Lincoln's failure to win the Arkansas Democratic primary outright:

The outcomes of both contests, along with a Democratic primary in Arkansas that pushed Senator Blanche Lincoln into a runoff election in June, illustrated anew the serious threats both parties face from candidates who are able to portray themselves as outsiders and eager to shake up the system... The results were sobering for both parties, amounting to a rejection of candidates selected and backed by leaders in Washington who found themselves out of step with their electorates. Republicans and Democrats alike are now left to learn the lessons from the frustration being expressed by voters, and to unify behind nominees who face daunting general election campaigns.

The anti-incumbent mood is clearly dominant in the Republican primaries. But the dynamic of these Democratic primaries is not anti-incumbency - it's that Democrats want our representatives in Congress to push back harder against Republicans than they have done to date. Democrats don't trust Specter and they punished Lincoln for holding up health reform.

It's also clear that Obama was not prepared to go to the mat for Specter. He had promised his support when Specter switched parties, but was not going to do more than the bare minimum that was expected of him. Robocalls, but no trip to Pennsylvania. It'll be interesting to see what positions Specter takes for the rest of this session. For thirty-odd years he's been a finely calibrated voting machine, first triangulating between the demands of the Pennsylvania electorate and first the Republican, then the Democratic Party. He has developed fence-sitting and vote-trading to an art form. Now he is free to vote his conscience. His challenge is going to be remembering what that is.