In the wake of a ninja running around with nunchunks out to get Joseph Lieberman…

Giant Ball things chased after Arlen Specter.  While Lieberman didn’t think much of the ninja, Specter thought the ball things were “fun.  interesting.  Sporting.”

I hazard to guess theydidn’t much affect Arlen Specter beyond that.  I suppose we could all tap into this type of Political Activism, chase about politicians in various bubble things, put it onto youtube, and it’d all dissolve from any issue or cause advanced into a giant mess of dadaism.

Arlen Specter is maybe the most vulnerable Democratic Senator coming up in 2010.  But it’s not the most vulnerable Democratic Senate seat.  Arlen Specter numbers are all screwy and softening in the primary match-up with Joe Sestak, and faltering against the Republican nominee Pat Toomey — the theory that would hold him as more electable is faltering.

So it is that Joseph Biden came out to pitch Arlen Specter to the Democratic crowds in Pennsylvania.  Joseph Biden was supposedly instrumental in convincing Specter to switch parties in the first place, the subject of long-winded Amtrak ride conversations, with Specter amenable to political reality of falling in the Republican primary — Biden talking and talking and talking apparently pushed Specter over the edge.

To hear Joseph Biden tell it, Specter voted with the Maine Republican Senators (I don’t recall — was it both Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe or was it just Olympia Snowe?), after teaming up with Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson for this task, and — with the magic of trimming out some hundreds of billions of dollars and upping some tax cuts — crafted through that bill that saved us from entering a gloomy Great Depression.

Interesting enough, I heard the same in an interview with Specter earlier.  And also interesting enough, he was far more chilly and sanguine at the time of passing the bill than he is now.  But that is pretty predictable — one rejoinder of having to move from away from his past . 

Always notice that Barack Obama speaks about creating or saving x number of jobs.   Indeed, most economists agree, even though it ends up being a bit unprovable of jobs lost versus jobs otherwise lost.  The affect, with the economists theoretically most favorable to Obama thinking that Stimulus Bill was watered down, has October 9’s Congressional Insiders Poll by the National Journal with Democrats counting Yes 44 percent No 51 percent Depends (volunteered) 5 percent, and Republicans counting Yes 7 percent No 89 percent Depends (volunteered) 5 percent.  Interesting responses, if you want to look to the National Journal.

The “jobs otherwise lost” doesn’t really sit all that well.  What we have is an argument that we avoided the Worst Economy since the Great Depression and steered us to the safe ground of the Worst Economy since the early 1980s.  Is that a message that works well for you?

Similarly, the Budget Deficit is some 400 billion dollars less than was forecasted.  Which is great, I guess?  That still leaves a whopper of a deficit, and one heck of a number to throw around on a campaign trail.

So, there’s that “Eat your Vegetables” item about these unpleasantries.  Doesn’t always go down well, as the elder knows with brocolli.  (Unrelated, but kind of amusing nonetheless.)

In a year, Biden and Rendall will probably have to be campaigning for Joe Sestack.  What started as a whisper, with only a Ned Lamont or two, backing will give way to Arlen Specter losing a primary race he would have lost anyway in the other party.  Then he’ll move on to his stint as Lobbyist (unless he retires completely) at K Street — where the giant balls should be continuing to bounce after him — it is as much a part of the perma-government as the Senate and the Specters of the world, after all.

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