Santorum Whips Up on Casey in TV Debate

Rick Santorum has been trailing his Dem opponent, Bob Casey, in the Pennsylvania Senate race, and the Dems have been drooling over the chance to get rid of Santorum and claim that seat. Santorum has been closing the gap, and after last Sunday morning's debate on Meet the Press, may soon emerge as the frontrunner:

Santorum Crushes Casey in Debate

Closing in on his front-runner opponent in the polls, Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., came out swinging in the first and probably the only public debate with Pennsylvania State Treasurer Bob Casey.

He may have delivered a knockout blow to Casey, who appeared confused and inarticulate during his encounter with the fast-talking Santorum during their weekend debate on NBC's "Meet the Press" with host Tim Russert.

Writing at SantorumBlog, contributor Rich Talbert observed: "Casey was a dead stick when discussing Iraq ... was absolutely clueless about Social Security ... bombed with Catholics with the abortion pill ... dropped the ball on the pay raise ... but did a good job coming across as sophomoric and being awfully smug and sarcastic.”

Meanwhile, Santorum lived up to what the Washington Post called "his reputation as a feisty, unapologetic conservative,” energetically voicing his support of President Bush despite suggestions that he has sought to distance himself from the president.

I read elsewhere that Casey's plan for Social Security is to leave it alone, raise taxes, and hope the economy grows despite the tax increase. Not a real sound plan, and both Tim Russert and Rick Santorum made mince meat out of his over that.

Things will definitely tighten up before November. The voters of Pennsylvania couldn't have been impressed with what they saw from Casey.

UPDATE: A view from Philadelphia on the debate.