So this looks to be Specter’s strategy:

“I think we’re on the brink of a depression,” Sen. Specter said to reporters in Harrisburg, PA on Monday. “I think that if we had turned [the stimulus package] down it would have been repercussions world wide,” he added. …

<snip>

Sen. Specter is fully aware of the vulnerability on his right flank which may be why he painted such a dire and mysterious economic outlook when speaking with reporters today. “I knew that it would be politically perilous and I’ve been very blunt about it,” he said.

“Our economic problems are enormously serious, more serious than is publicly disclosed,” Specter said without shedding any further light on what is being shielded from public view.

One wonders if Specter’s telling the truth here or playing the doom and gloom card. Or maybe the truth is doom and gloom.

Either way, while this might resonate with moderate voters - it does nothing for the right-wing voters that Toomey will peel off in the primary. Specter’s core problem is that he’s too moderate for an increasingly extreme party.