This NYT article portrays the Democratic "big tent" policy on abortion, intended to accommodate folks like Bob Casey, who leads Rick Santorum in current polls. Of course, the "objective" effect of the big tent policy--at least its intended effect--is to regain Democratic control of the Senate so as to protect abortion. The NYT reporter, who writes of "anti-abortion" voters, can’t bring herself to express the obverse--"pro-abortion," which is behind the so-called pragmatism in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Democrats are happy to accommodate Casey and at least a few others like him, so long as they provide the votes to retake the Senate and also to derail further efforts to roll back Roe v. Wade.
It’s a good thing for the Democrats that Bob Casey does not harbor any ill-will for the disrespect they showed his father when they banned him from speaking at the 1992 national convention because of his pro-life views. It’s hard to have a big tent when you demonize anyone who does not subscribe to the liberal orthodoxy in toto.
Sadly Penn. still has Arlen Spector.