Rally the Dems

Deena Beard and I drove over to Bryn Mawr to attend the petition-signing rally for our major Democratic candidates this afternoon. (I understand that Geeky Mom and Atrios were both there. I didn't see Her Geekiness, despite looking for her. And I wouldn't know Atrios if I tripped over him.) I also got to see some of our friends with the Lentz campaign. (Lentz staffers helped us with poll-staffing in the recent municipal elections. While I'm sorry that he wasn't given a shot with the *&!$ county establishment, having him run for the PA-161 State House seat means that we can all commit to busting our humps for him.)

Young State Reps. Michael Gerber and Josh Shapiro definitely appear to be party up-and-comers. I expect to see them running for higher office someday. Joe Sestak is clearly refining his four-point security platform that he tried out on the Swarthmore College Dems a couple weeks ago. Lois Murphy looks to be a great shot at a pick-up in the PA-06. Notably absent was Bob Casey, although his petitions were there. (I don't know if he wasn't there because of other commitments, or because this wasn't expected to be his kind of crowd.)

Rendell was vintage Rendell...Capable of visiting the well for whatever pixie dust he uses to work himself up into a spirited enthusiasm for the business of politics. The section that got the crowd cheering was on the importance of the Party reclaiming the morality frame. If you've been paying attention to the remarks of prominent Democrats for the last year, you know that it's one of the major themes that Democrats are trying to hit on. When he closed the section saying "We're golden rule Democrats," you could see that it plainly resonated as a catch-phrase in the room. I did a search on the term "Golden Rule Democrat" in some search engines, and it's clear to me that this is actually a slogan that's working its way around the DNC, DCCC, etc. You'll find that several other Democratic candidates are using the phrase. If it works, go with it, say I. I'm not terribly fond of sloganeering and talking points, but if we're going to reduce the message of the Party to a single phrase, it had better be a powerful, simple, resonant core value like the Golden Rule.

Technorati tags: PA Politics Democrats Ed Rendell PA-07 PA-06 Joe Sestak Lois Murphy Bryan Lentz Election-2006