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Wrong about
Blanche Lincoln
by Gene Lyons
Link,
Excerpt:
Now that the dust and feathers have settled,
here’s my view: If anybody's acting like Republicans, it’s progressives
determined to purge ideologically impure Democrats
from Southern and Midwestern farm states whose views largely
reflect their constituents' extremely mixed feelings
about the party’s agenda. A more self-defeating strategy would be
hard to imagine. Nobody's questioning anybody's
rights, only their political judgment.
Why did the White House back Blanche Lincoln?
Probably because while she opposed the "public option" in
President Obama’s healthcare bill, when push
came to shove, she gave him a politically courageous 60th Senate vote
putting the bill over the top. Courageous because
"Obamacare" remains widely misunderstood and wildly unpopular
in a state where the president earned 39 percent
of the vote in 2008.
"Obamacare" remains widely misunderstood because
Democrats can't explain shit.
Hell, that bill is almost 3,000 pages - has anyone
even read it?
With that vote, Lincoln put her career on the
line.
Obama would have been an ingrate had he not supported
her during the primary.
That’s probably also why Blanche's winning margin
came almost entirely from Arkansas’
most reliably liberal precincts in Little Rock
and Fayetteville.
Women in particular appeared to think that they
owed her too.
Many Halter votes came from rural Democrats apt
to lean Republican in November.
Simply and very broadly put, the race was viewed
very differently inside than outside Arkansas.
Pragmatism had a lot to do with it. For all the
cultural conservatism of its largely rural and small town populace,
the state hasn’t yet adopted Southern-style Republicanism.
At present, Arkansas' governor, both U.S. senators,
and three of four congressmen are Democrats.
Many would prefer keeping it that way.
I'm going to trust Gene on this because I don't have time to investigate.
Gene's great at explaining things. If he
had written the HC bill, I'll bet it would've been
just 300 pages long and every Democrat would
be able to explain it.