Why Specter Switched

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Michael Grunwald’s take:

Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter’s party switch does highlight the growing marginalization of the hard-right Republican Party, now down to two moderates in the Senate. And it does highlight the growing dominance of the post-George W. Bush Democratic Party, now just a Minnesota comedian away from a filibuster-proof majority. But let’s not overthink: It mostly highlights the desperate opportunism of a 79-year-old five-term senator staring into the abyss of involuntary retirement. Specter may be right that the GOP left him first, but that’s just a face-saving way of admitting he couldn’t win its primary.