Lincoln’s Predicament: How Did We Get Here?
March 1, 2010 Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) paid a visit to the Mid-South Farm & Gin Show Saturday and then spoke for nearly half-an-hour. She entered to a standing ovation. She exited to a standing ovation. In between, she said all the right things.
“Farming is my livelihood. I’m proud to represent the State of Arkansas in the United States Senate, Lincoln said. “I’m extremely proud to represent agriculture. In the 184 years of the United States Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, I am the first Arkansan to serve as Chair and obviously the first woman. I take a great deal of pride in representing my home state in the industry that is the basis of our economy, as well as the Mid-South.”
She graced the cover of our July issue. The story by Beck Barnes was on Lincoln’s life as a member of a seventh generation farm family and how hard she worked to ensure that the 2008 Farm Bill was not reopened or revised by the Obama administration.
Lincoln is up for re-election in November against whoever comes out of a nine-man field in the Republican primary on May 18, and likely runoff on June 8.
You have to wonder why, after all she has accomplished as a Congressman, Senator and Chairman of the Ag Committee, polls show that she would likely lose to any of those nine Republicans. In fact, if the election were held today, any of four Republicans would pound her.
U.S. Representative John Boozman has the most nationally recognized name, but didn’t enter the race until January 29. He leads Lincoln by as much as 20 percent in some polls.
Ooops. Let’s recalculate those polls. Smelling blood in the water, Lt. Gov. Bill Halter announced his candidacy Monday and will face Lincoln in a May 18 Democratic primary.
With Lincoln’s disapproval rating at 60 percent, you’d have to say Halter’s the favorite even before he tapped the microphone and asked, “Is this thing on?”
Consider this quote: “Poor Blanche Lincoln is trailing everybody. She couldn’t even beat Mussolini, although that one would probably end up in a run-off.”
Mussolini? The infamous Il Duce? Blanche Lincoln, seventh-generation-farm-family Arkansan and Ag Committee Chairman would either lose or have to run it off with Il Duce?
If Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck had said that, we could laugh it off, but it was Charles Krauthammer. Krauthammer lands right of center and is a contributor for Fox News. (You know, the network the liberals hate). But he’s also a columnist for The Washington Post . (You know, the paper the conservatives hate.)
Lincoln and the despicable Harry Reid are considered the most vulnerable Democratic Senators and Lincoln is considered to be in more trouble than Reid. Come on. She loses to Il Duce and is worse off than Harry Reid? Does her head spin around, too?
“Polls are showing tremendous skepticism in Arkansas over the health care bill. And Lincoln has taken heat for trying to be all things to all people on the issue, criticizing it and embracing it at the same time,” wrote Ken Rudin of Political Junkie. “In trying to satisfy everyone, she is satisfying no one.”
Halter will be coming at Lincoln from the left. Should she beat Halter, the Republicans will be coming at her from the right. Throw in the fact that Arkansas went overwhelmingly for John McCain in 2008 and there’s a slim-to-none chance that a member of a seventh generation farm family who “has walked rice levees and chopped down coffeeweed in soybeans with a machete” will continue to be our Ag Committee in 2011.
I’m scratching my spinning head on this one.
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