What is up with Ed Rendell?

[Virginian87]

What is the deal with Ed Rendell?  I didn't realize the man was so unpopular as governor that a former football player with barely any political experience is suddenly locked in a dead heat with him.

Where did Ed Rendell go wrong?  What has he done as governor to bring him to such a tough reelection race?

[Virginian87]

And the Republicans minus Santorum are moderates with union support.  Santorum caught a lucky break in 1994 with the Gingrich Revolution along with a lightweight in Ron Klink as an opponent in 2000.

This is true.  Arlen Specter is a quasi-Democrat.

[Virginian87]

Rendell seemed like an old fashioned "machine" politician, like a Tammany Hall guy.

I got that impression too.  Not to say I disapprove of Rendell, and I certainly want him to retain his position as Governor.  It must be the fact that he's from Philadelphia, a burned-out craphole of a city, home to such people as John Street.