PENNSYLVANIA –  AT 8:47 A.M. ET:  Poll results for Pennsylvania's upcoming Senate race are dramatic, for a state that usually goes blue.  Arlen Specter, formerly a Republican, but now running as a Democrat, is in major trouble.

A new Franklin & Marshall College poll shows conservative Republican Pat Toomey, who will be the GOP candidate, beating Specter, 45% to 31%, a 14-point spread.  A recent Rasmussen poll shows Toomey up by nine.

That is considered a Democratic seat because of Specter's switch, and now seems ripe for a GOP takeover in November.  With Scott Brown's election in Massachusetts, the Dems lost their 60-vote supermajority, the number needed to block a Republican filibuster.  It appears there may be further erosion, if current trends continue.

COMMENT:  By the way, Obama made an unseemly attack on the Senate in his speech last night, apparently frustrated by Senate rules.  We recall no such concern when he was in that body, although he didn't show up enough to notice the rules.  He started running for president almost as soon as he became a senator.

January 28, 2010