Been off for two weeks...

I was busy getting married. So I'm just going to litter the blog with stuff I find interesting...

• The PA Governor's race is over. Tom Corbett is your new governor. I like Mr. Corbett, although something about his most recent ad leaves me cold. I'm glad that he's pledging to resist all of these one-time pet projects; it'll be a soothing economic salve after eight years of Governor Graft. But it's not those spits and farts of money that are standing in between Pennsylvania and prosperity. Does Tom Corbett have the stones to walk the Chris Christie path? Will he support the politically dangerous structural reforms that will finally draw us out of our union-era stupor? His "running mate," Jim Cawley, has come out in support of Right-to-Work law. Corbett probably won't take a stand during the next month because, let's face it, he would have to either piss off moderates or call Dan Onorato a macaca in order make this a race. But will he put it on the agenda once he's governor? (For the record, Onorato is more than a little simian-looking.)
• At a fundraiser, Joe Sestak sold tickets to an appearance by Obama, still the president, for tickets as low as $50. He sold about a thousand. At the same time, Pat Toomey held an apropos-of-nothing internet fundraising drive. He raised $50,000. That race isn't over, but it's starting to look like a Humvee moments before it collides with Mini Cooper.
• Hines Ward has been named to Obama's advisory commission on Asians and Pacific Islanders. (Your first assignment: nuclear disarmament of North Korea.) But why Hines Ward and not Troy Polamalu? Hines is definitely America's preeminent Afro-Asian-American, but isn't Troy America's #1 Polynesian? And the two of them together could take on the whole damn Red Army.
• Western PA will host two bellweathers on Election Night. If Keith Rothfus beats Jason Altmire--which I think is very possible despite the national media's inattention to the race--it's going to be a HUGE night. If Mike Kelly can't beat Kathy Dahlkemper, prepare for disappointment.