Seriously, people, who are the Pennsylvania folks being polled?  Scroll down, and look at the Pennsylvania figures showing Casey ahead by 13% or more!  What are PA people thinking?  Is their print and local liberal media really that convincing?  Rick Santorum is a leader!  He is pro America, pro family, and a stand-out senator!  I cannot, simply do not believe the patriotic majority of Americans in Pennsylvania would consider voting for this mental midget;

"MR. RUSSERT: Let’s go right to it: the war in Iraq. Mr. Casey, you’re the challenger, you told The Philadelphia Inquirer August 2005 the following:

“Casey said he would have voted for the war considering the evidence at the time, and supported the spending bills that funded the effort.” Knowing what you know today, would you still have voted for the war?

MR. CASEY: Tim, before I begin my answer I just want to make a note of a loss in Pennsylvania. Mayor Bob O’Connor, in the city of Pittsburgh, passed away. We want to express—I think we share that here today—we want to express our condolences to his family.

Tim, on the war in Iraq, if, if, if a lot of Americans knew now—if they knew then what they know now, they would, they would have thought that this war was the war that shouldn’t have been fought based upon the misleading of this administration."

With such scintillating insight, such original thought (blame Bush?  Imagine that...) with such razor edge point-making (ouch...my sharp tongue sometimes really hurts my cheek!) why wouldn't Pennsylvania voters want him to represent them?  Hmmm....let me see....well, the many family and friends I have in that beautiful state have a great deal more intelligence than Mr. Casey.  Anyone of them would have made more concise, to-the-point arguments.  He continues;

"MR. CASEY: Couple of things. First of all, what you just heard was Senator Santorum’s long answer, which basically says, “Stay the course in Iraq.” It’s a completely different point of view. I think we’ve go got to change the course and, and have new leadership. Part of that is that, that accountability I’ve talked about.

MR. RUSSERT: But stop there—stop there Mr. Casey.

MR. CASEY: OK.

MR. RUSSERT: I think there’s an evolution in your thinking. Let me go back to April of ‘05, the Philadelphia Daily News said, “The key thing now is to finish the job.” That’s Bob Casey, quote/unquote. October, “Some people think that pulling out is a good idea and a timeline is a good idea - I don’t agree with that. We’ve got more work to do to make sure that we get it right.” Then in June of ‘06, Bob Casey said, “He doesn’t believe U.S. troops should be removed from Iraq immediately but should be by the end of the year. He said the country has a new government and that it’s time for the Iraqis to take a greater role in defending themselves.” Should we finished the job? Or should we remove the troops by the end of the year?

MR. CASEY: Tim, I’ve never favored a deadline in, in, in this whole campaign. Because we have to do everything we can to, to hold the administration accountable. And when you’re—when it’s not going well, you, you see the, the Pentagon report this past—just in the last couple of days, this thing is headed toward civil war. We don’t know if it’s there yet. We hope it’s not. But when you have it heading in the wrong direction, you’ve got to have a new course. And, and...

MR. RUSSERT: So, so when John Kerry, the Democratic nominee in 2004, introduced legislation which says, “All troops out by July of 2007,” Bob Casey votes no.

MR. CASEY: Absolutely.

Sure.  I believe that...right.  "Hold the administration accountable" means complain about them repeatedly, which they seem ready to do as soon as a camera appears.  With this sort of really fresh new thinking, is it any wonder he ducked suggestions from Santorum to have debates throughout the state?

What about Senator Santorum's performance in this debate?

MR. CASEY:.....But, Rick, you know why they’re draining it right now? To pay for those tax cuts for the wealthy that you supported. That’s the wrong policy for Social Security and for the economy.

SEN. SANTORUM: He wants to, he, he wants to grow the economy by increasing taxes. That’s what he says. So here, here he’s saying we have to grow the economy so we’re going to take more out of it. That’s a great way to grow the economy. In fact, what we’ve seen is that, in fact, when we give people their money, let them keep the money that they’ve worked hard to earn, they reinvest it, they create jobs, and they grow the economy just like you suggested. He provided absolutely no answer, again. And he’s not only has not provided an answer for how he’s going to reduce the deficit, in fact his proposals are well over a trillion dollars. If you just go through his Web site and see all the things he wants to fully fund...

MR. CASEY: Your answers...

SEN. SANTORUM: We passed, we passed a Medicare bill—Medicaid bill earlier this year, cut $40 billion out of the growth of Medicare. He was against it.  I—we—another entitlement, welfare reform. 1996, the most successful piece of legislation, social policy legislation in history, took illegal immigrants off welfare, took, took prisoners off of welfare, took fugitive felons off of welfare. He was against it. It would—it saved billions of dollars over the last 10 years.

MR. CASEY: (Unintelligible).

SEN. SANTORUM: He was against it. He’s against anything that cuts government.

MR. CASEY: No.

Nope, I'm still not buying the poll numbers are in truth, that good for Casey...or more importantly that BAD for Rick Santorum.  I believe the people of Pennsylvania are smarter than what the polls suggest they are!  Guess we'll find out on 11/8....or 11/9....or somewhere before January '07 for swearing in, right?