On the home front

The Reagan coalition fragments

According to reports in TPM and The Hill, Senator Arlen Specter may again face a stiff primary challenge from former Representative Pat Toomey. The importance of this possibility can be gleaned from the fact that Specter only eked out a victory over Toomey in 2004 and the fact that the political landscape has changed dramatically since that time, a change likely to benefit a far right ideologue like Toomey when challenging a more reasonable Republican like Specter. Thus Specter would be favored to win any general election when running against any given Democratic candidate and certainly would beat someone like Toomey. But Specter would likely lose to Toomey if the primary were held today! Consequently a second TPM article suggests that Specter ought to switch parties and run as a Democrat against Toomey!