Today's NY Times reports a new poll which found that under 30 respondents were far more supportive of the war and Bush than over 65 respondents. The link to the article, on the NY Times front page reads, Younger people are more supportive of the war and the president. The article reports,

Forty-eight percent of Americans 18 to 29 years old said the United States did the right thing in taking military action against Iraq, while 45 percent said the United States should have stayed out. That is in sharp contrast to the opinions of those 65 and older, who have lived through many other wars. Twenty eight percent of that age group said the United States did the right thing, while 67 percent said the United States should have stayed out.

This is not inconsistent with the polling we did at OpEdNews.com. But it is, in a way, misleading.

This article covers two topics, first-- the uneven, preferential coverage Bob Casey has received throughout the senate race and second, an explanation of why, a defeat for Bob Casey would be the best way to win an election against Rick Santorum.

Today, two major PA daily papers came out endorsing Bob Casey, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

Neither came as a surprise. They have failed miserably and irresponsibly to do an adequate job of covering the senate race, almost ignoring and always discussing the Casey competitors as minor irrelevancies. Over and over again, the daily papers across the state, with a few minor exceptions, have covered the senate race as a race between Casey and Santorum, ignoring the other candidates.  Both papers coverage of the race has been editorially disgraceful and an embarassment to independent journalism. It's why a recent poll found that only about 4% of the mainstream media are doing an excellent job.

Moveon.org has sent out a poll to PA moveon.org members. It is asking them to choose between Bob Casey jr. and Chuck Pennacchio.
At first glance, this seems like a good, fair move. But there are several severe problems that make me ask the question, did Moveon.org just do a bad job here or was it intentional and they are not very subtly setting up a win for centrist, Republican look-alike Casey. I'd love an answer from Moveon.org, and since I've always been a great fan, supporter and contributor to moveon, I hope that it's just a dumb mistake that they correct by adding info that fills in the gaps described below.

 They fail to mention the issues that are most significant in differentiating the two candidates.
1)       We know that at 82% of Pennsylvanians are not aware that Bob Casey, jr. is strongly anti women's rights (his supporters would argue that he is anti-abortion and pro-life. But we know from George Lakoff that those terms are Republican framing language, and that progressives and Democrats failing to provide this information is either a terrible mistake or a treacherous omission that is an attempt to get moveon members to vote without giving them the facts they deserve to have, while appearing to be fair.  
2)       Moveon provides a quotation from Howard Dean that says something nice about Casey. It is not an endorsement. But placed where it is in the bio, it sure looks like one.
3)       Moveon fails to mention that Casey is a conservative, republican-look-alike who was chosen by former DNC chair and centrist DLC loyalist Ed Rendell,  Senators Harry Reid and Charles Schumer, and a big dollar democratic contributor. Casey does not even have an issues page on his campaign website.  Chuck Pennacchio, on the other hand, is a well known progressive who has clearly stated positions that match Moveon.org member values much more closely.
4)       The Santorum Senate race will be the most closely watched race in the nation next year. Already, half of the contribution funds to the Pennacchio campaign are coming from out of the state. This is a national issue and all Moveon.org members should be asked for their opinion.
I urge you to take the following steps:
1)       if you are a PA resident, vote for Chuck Pennacchio.
2)       If you know any PA residents who are probably  Moveon.org members, contact all of them and make sure they vote for Chuck Pennacchio. Contact all your listserves and get the word out. Even if you are not a PA resident, sign in for the poll yourself at  http://www.moveonpac.org/2006/?state=Pennsylvania&id
3)       Contact Moveon.org and insist that they correct their `mistake" by amending the information about Casey and Pennacchio to include issue stands that are declared or well known. Better yet, moveon.org should do what it should have done in the first place and ask each candidate to answer a series of questions on where they stand on important issues, so the poll voters can make really informed choices.
4)       Blog about this. Write about it on your own blog. Comment on it in the major blogs like dailykos, atrios, mydd, americablog, and then write to your favorite progressive media.