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Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Senator McDreamy
Posted by Jill | 6:10 AM
Now here's a guy who ought to make that thrill go up Chris Matthews' leg. Meet Scott Kleeb, who decisively won his primary race against a Republican-turned-Democrat in Nebraska yesterday with 69 (now, STOP it!) percent of the vote. Kleeb is running for the seat of the retiring Chuck Hagel against former U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns.

The good news? Well, LOOK at him, fer cryin' out loud. The other good news? His big push is about R&D into alternative energy, he's an environmentalist, and favors diplomacy over shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later. He's a bit more hawkish than I'd like, his talk of "simplifying the tax code" sounds kind of right-wing dog-whistle-ish, and he falls into the trap of assuming that retraining is some kind of panacea for job outsourcing. But he's about as progressive as you're going to get out of Nebraska, he's an ranch hand-turned-college professor with a Ph.D. in history, and well, uh, LOOK at him.

This would be a very nice Democratic pickup. It would mean that the Democrats would have picked up seats that used to belong to some of the most high-profile Republicans in the Senate and House.

With West Virginia proving yesterday that there are still far too many people who simply Will Not vote for a black man for president, getting to that 60-seat threshhold in Congress is going to be very important as a precaution against a McCain presidency run amok. Kleeb is running against an extremely well-financed opponent, so if you want to target a Senate race for donations, you could do worse than this one.

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3 Comments:
Anonymous Anonymous said...
I would really, really like to believe that the West Virginia thing was about more than race. People are nervous. They feel really insecure, and for whatever reason, Clinton makes them feel like she has a better hold on the economy.

Is some of it race? I'm sure it is, but Clinton really has set herself up as the candidate who understands the plight of the working class. She has. I don't even know how it happened, but she did.

And frankly, Obama saying that thing about bitter people in Pennsylvania probably didn't help him in West Virginia. It doesn't matter what he meant, it's what people heard that matters.

Kleeb certainly is pretty, isn't he? I thought he was Eric Dane for a moment.
5/14/08, 8:43 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
I'M LOOKING AT HIM!

What? *Of course* I'm that shallow. Geez!
5/14/08, 12:51 PM  
Blogger adam k. said...
Clinton set herself up as the "working class" candidate simply because Obama (inadvertently) set himself up as the un-working class candidate (via Bittergate). Whatever Obama is, she runs to the opposite of that, because she has never had a constant platform/identity and simply positions herself in relation to what's going on around her. And people buy it. Even if it runs contrary to everything else she's ever been about. People are dumb like that. And the media plays along.

Once John Edwards left, that spot was up for grabs. So she kind of settled into it, aided by the fact that less educated folks already liked her better because they simplistically associate her with better economic times, they buy into her "experience" meme, and they are reluctant to trust a strange black man with a funny name.

One of the things that's pissed me off most about the primary is how people are saying Clinton has "come into her own" as a candidate, when in fact all that's happened is:

A) the primary moved to states she was favored in anyway
B) the focus shifted more onto the economy (her strong point) and off of Iraq (her weak point)
C) she stuck her finger in the wind yet again and pandered accordingly
D) she starting exploiting people's fears

If this is considered "coming into one's own", then I'm embarrassed than I'm embarrassed for politicians. Thanks to Obama for striving to be something better.
5/15/08, 12:03 AM  
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