Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


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Thursday, May 13, 2010

Pre-2010 Pennsylvania Primary thoughts

By Dave Anderson:

We are a couple of days out from the 2010 Pennsylvania Primary and there are numerous interesting races going on.  Here are a couple of very non-scientific observations from watching TV, seeing who is advertising and on what themes, and general buzz.


  • Dan Onorato will win the right to have his ass kicked by Attorney General Corbett in the governor's race.

  • Corbett, the highly probable Republican nominee, is already running ads in general election mode.  His entire campaign is premised on his ability to clean up the bums and asses in Harrisburg as evidenced by the multiple political corruption indictments and convictions his office has already secured.  

  • PA-12 is getting interesting.  The DCCC is on the air consistently with a hard-hitting negative ad against Tim Burns, the Republican nominee for the special election to replace Murtha.  The centerpiece of the ad is accusing Tim Burns of supporting a national sales tax and then highlighting how that will increase the price of groceries, gas and doctor's appointments.  I've seen less GOP advertising up on the air.  The polling shows Critz with a late lead.  I'm surprised.  I wrote this seat off the moment Murtha died.  PA-12 is a rapidly trending GOP district in Appalachia, not an area where Democrats have been doing well over the past few years.  

  • Now what to believe about Sestak v. Specter.  I think the Susquehanna poll that has Sestak up by 9 points is optimistic.  That margin would imply that Sestak has vacuumed up almost every undecided (believable) and knocked off three or four percent of Specter's steady-state coalition.   My gut feel is Sestak will win by five to seven points.  I don't think the party machinery is strong enough to deliver for Specter as there is a significant difference between doing your job and getting the job done.  A good chunk of the party machine in Pittsburgh and Philly are made up of people like me who may do their jobs, but won't go the extra mile to push Specter over the finish line.

  • And now talking about the local party machine, as far as I know, my race to win Swissvale-8 Dem. Committee male member is still on track.  I'll most likely be part of the party machine as of next week.  Keep that in mind when assuming a monolithic machine pushing its favored candidates over the top.  There is a significant split in the activist and doorknocker base.  




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