Posted by
Patrick Henry on Wednesday, June 09, 2010 1:53:49 PM
There were some none-too-subtle messages in the results from yesterday's
primaries. Do you suppose the cretans in Washington, D.C., got the memo?
It had three pretty clear points, and set up some very interesting political
scenarios for the November mid-terms.
Point one: conservatives rejoice, liberals beware. While some Tea Party
candidates won, almost all made very strong showings, indicating a backlash
against the liberal Obama administration, status quo incumbents and business-
as-usual in Washington. In spite of millions poured into Arkansas by the SEIU,
AFL-CIO and MoveOn.org to support Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter's bid to
unseat Senator Blanche Lincoln, Lincoln won anyway. What a huge slap in the
face to these "progressive" thugs. But even Lincoln is 20 points down to Republican
John Boozman against whom she must run in November. For the first time in awhile,
Americans will have some real clear-cut choices when they go to the polls next fall.
Point two: women (conservative ones) have arrived as a force in national
politics. Two powerful female former mega-business CEOs, Meg Whitman
(E-Bay) and Carly Fiorina (Hewlett-Packard) swept to victory in the Republican
gubernatorial and senatorial primaries in California. Though forced into a run-off,
State Representative Nikki Haley more than doubled her nearest challenger's vote
total and appears the prohibitive favorite for the Republican gubernatorial
nomination in South Carolina. Lincoln won against a white liberal male in Arkansas,
and Tea Party darling Sharron Angle bested all comers for the right to face Harry
Reid in the Nevada senatorial election. Each of these women faces serious challenges
in the mid-term elections, but who would ever have thought they'd be on the ballot
there? The most important signal this sends is that much of the new emerging leader-
ship in the Republican party is female. How's that for a new twist?
Pont three: Barack Obama not only has no coattails, he has no coat. The only
winning candidate he endorsed was Lincoln, but those on the ground in Arkansas
have made it very clear that it was Bill Clinton, not Obama, whose endorsement
carried her over the top. Polls are very clear that people in Arkansas detest Obama's
policies, and Lincoln wisely distanced herself from them, emphasizing her independence
in last night's big win. It seems clear that far from being a boon to Democratic
candidates in the fall, Obama with his spendthrift policies and budget-busting
entitlements will be a huge albatross around their necks. A majority of them will
not survive.
So, did YOU get the memo? The table is set to make some sweeping changes in
the way Washington works (or doesn't). But it's going to take lots of grassroots
organizing, door-knocking and fund-raising to get it done. The SEIU, AFL-CIO and
MoveOn will be out there spending hundreds of millions, registering dead people
and twisting arms for votes. They failed miserably in Arkansas. Let's make sure
that story is repeated so that if, by November, Obama is still trying to figure out
whose a*s to kick, maybe he'll want to take a good shot at his own.