edited version cross-posted at Huffington Post
Nothing represents change in an anti-incumbent year like a woman.
Since Hillary Clinton’s historic presidential run for office, the 18 million cracks have created a political opening. Sarah Palin was the first through and she’s used her clout to make room for others. It’s just too bad the Republican women rising are against women’s individual freedoms. But make no mistake about it, the collapse of the Republican brand has allowed the ultimate outsider, women, to find a way in. As for Blanche Lincoln the new comeback kid, after the Halter scare that caused the runoff, she changed and won.
“Organized labor just flushed $10 million down the toilet.” – White House Official
The biggest winner last night was Blanche Lincoln, who was bracing for a loss, which showed in her face during her speech. William Jefferson Clinton wins too, which I know will drive some people crazy. It’s a heartbreaking loss for movement progressives who came so close, but their challenge made Blanche Lincoln a better candidate. It was a serious confrontation to elite power that had every establishment Dem quaking, which from the quote above from Ben Smith reveals they didn’t like it much. You can see Lincoln’s response in the ad after Halter forced a runoff. This battle is the stuff the makes for eventual victories. But the loss progressives didn’t expect even has Markos Moulitsas reconsidering the polling firm he uses. Some are writing Lincoln off, and she’ll have to raise a lot of money. November won’t be easy, because the energy will come from the right.
The hottest commodity is Nikki Haley, who will face a runoff on June 22. The good old boys just couldn’t take her down. Even after the slime thrown her way she still came in first and her brand image is through the roof. Dave Wiegel made a good predication last night on Twitter: Prediction: Gov. Nikki Haley (R-S.C.) will gave the SOTU response in 2011. She’s also got a presidential glimmer and being governor of a Southern state doesn’t hurt.
The anti-Nikki Haley is represented by birther queen Orly Taitz, but just imagine if she’s the Republican CA Sect. of State. It’s not decided yet (she’s losing badly right now). Thinking about Ms. Taitz playing the Katherine Harris role in 2012 should give everyone nightmares.
Carly Fiorina will be up against Barbara Boxer for the U.S. Senate. Two tough women fighting it out, this race will be one to watch.
If you’re keeping score, both Haley and Fiorina were endorsed by Sarah Palin. She can help raise money and rev up the troops, which has made for a very good 2010 for Palin. Her clout continues to matter as she uses her power to help other women rise.
Meg Whitman spent over $81M to get it done, but she’ll run against Jerry Brown for the California crown. She’s gone to the right to win the primary, so it will be interesting to see how her prior policy stance on things like immigration will be used against her.
…and what can you say about Sharon Angle, Nevada Tea Party spoiler and gift to Harry Reid? Seriously, I’ve got nothin’ on this one and my husband spent his life in Nevada. I also spent time there, so I can say that Nevadans don’t like politics as usual. I did a story during 2008 about my husband’s kids, all of whom backed Ron Paul. They’ve got a very independent western streak in the state, with Harry Reid not particularly beloved. No matter how wacky Ms. Angle sounds, I guarantee you Sen. Reid will not take anything for granted.
It’s taken a very long time but after the failures of Republican men, including Bush’s presidency, which was a big spending Administration, plus the disastrous campaign of John McCain, including his collapse on the economy, women are taking their place on the right. They’re coming from all ends of the Republican spectrum, with some of the display sure to offer awkward moments, but they are definitely energized. Republicans are seeing the rise of the female candidate, even if their politics stand in the face of women’s freedoms that we’ve fought to win. That’s something they’ll have to explain, especially with the rise of ultrasound bills across the country that demand a woman be challenged before taking care of her own body as she sees fit.
As for Democratic women rising… .. Since Hillary Clinton, well, as I’ve been writing for months, the new action has been on the right.
The republican party is known as a mans party, now the women are coming in and taking over. I don’t like some of their views and I wished at least moderate on some social issues, I wish they were moderate which I am sure Meg Whitman and Carly Fiornia will go that route to win in California. Sharon Angle proberly will win in Nevada, as off as she is in my opinion, this is a different year and if it was any other year she would not be a candidate, but this year she could pull this off its really hard to tell. I am sure Nikki Haley will win the runoff and to become South Carolinas first woman governor !! I cannot believe that a state like California even for the republican party in that state would elect Orly Taitz for CA SOS. But it seems this is the year of the republican woman.
Taitz is losing badly.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/right-now/2010/06/early_signs_of_gloom_for_orly.html
Thank you for that Taylor !! That would have been so embrassing !!
It seems Hillary Clinton, with her paving the way for women in America to run for office has also helped republican women also !! Its showing tonight !! Sarah Palin said she was going to help candidates and raise money for them !! Alot of her picks won tonight such as Nikki Haley and Carly Fiorina and I am sure she was proberly happy about Sharon Angle also. I am sure Sarah Palin just got alot more influence in the republican party and I don’t know that Mitt Romney is thinking !! Blanche Lincoln is a hugh shocker !! I really thought Bill Halter was going to win that one. This was a blow to the left and Blanche Lincoln is going to have to fight for her career this year because I think John Boozman could win this. I wasn’t so sure he could with Bill Halter, but with Senator Blanche Lincoln’s record I think John Boozman has a way better change of winning. The establishment candidate Blanche Lincoln won and make blue dogs very happy and the liberals upset !!
Obama just handed a senate seat to the repugnantklan party. Maybe the wackos were right after all, maybe he IS a Manchurian candidate, FOR THE GOP!
“Organized labor just flushed $10 million down the toilet.” – White House Official
I give zero weight to unnamed sources (too easy to manipulate opinion). Regardless, that is one stupid tone deaf statement if it’s true.
have u seen labor’s response? ouch!
AFL to White House: ‘Labor isn’t an arm of the Democratic Party’
The major labor federation AFL-CIO took sharp objection tonight to a White House official’s assessment that they’d “flushed $10 million of their members’ money down the toilet” in the “pointless exercise” of supporting the failed bid of Bill Halter to unseat Senator Blanche Lincoln.
“If that’s their take on this, then they severely misread how the electorate feels and how we’re running our political program. When we say we’re only going to support elected officials who support our issues,” said AFL-CIO spokesman Eddie Vale. “When they say we should have targeted our money among some key house races among Blue Dog Democrats –that ain’t happening.”
“Labor isn’t an arm of the Democratic Party,” Vale said. “It exists to suport working families. And that’s what we said tonight, and that’s what we’re gong to keep saying.”
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0610/AFL_to_White_House_Labor_isnt_an_arm_of_the_Democratic_Party.html
the price of lincoln’s win for the dem party? labor said tonight that their jobs was to support working families, not necessarily the dem party. yikes. its good for progressives to have labor be more independant. they wont do a damned thing for lincoln or for many other blue dogs.
Yes, but that’s exactly my issue w/giving weight to anonymous sources: How many Progressives read that statement and immediately substituted White House Official with Rahm Emanuel?
Labor immediately jumped on the insulting statement to separate themselves from establishment Dems, and as you say, claim independence. To assume an unnamed WH source made a statement to rub salt in Progressive wounds while deliberately alienating Labor makes no sense because that would imply that the WH had the intention of throwing obstacles in their own path.
If I wanted to divide and conquer the Democratic Party, I’d be hard pressed to think of a better way to do it. Stay alert.
Stupid and tone-deaf, but fairly good analysis.
Arkansas is owned by Tyson foods and Wal-Mart, there is almost no labor presence in the state. Southerners generally don’t like labor unions. Bill Halter was labor’s politician ergo Blanche exploits that connection and wins the runoff.
It was a colossal waste of money.
hamsher on halter. she lead the way to get him to take lincoln on. a good read. she says in the last few days lincoln was able to halt halter’s momentum with the “big labor is running bill halter’s campaign.” halter got most his money from sm donors and hamsher says they underestimated how devastating the labor controls halter message was in ar. oh well live and learn in this wild game
http://elections.firedoglake.com/2010/06/09/lincoln-defeats-halter/
I have great respect for movement progressives who backed Halter. What they do is just amazing.
That said, anyone who knows Arkansas, and certainly they should have had to have people inside AR who knew, should have seen this coming. Arkansas is NOT a union state. It’s a right to work state.
The best you’re going to read on the issue:
http://talkingunion.wordpress.com/2010/06/08/arkansas-from-politics-to-organizing/
Now, national unions have been pouring a lot of resources, mostly money, into Bill Halter’s campaign, with good reason. Sen. Lincoln’s opposition to EFCA and fence straddling on Health Care Reform are just the latest examples of her long-standing refusal to fight in the interests of working people. Labor has unmistakably staked its claim on this race, but with such a small number of union members in Arkansas the support has come in the form of attack ads financed by mostly out-of-state unions. There isn’t much of a homegrown labor movement mobilizing on the ground to get out the vote. Because of this, Lincoln’s campaign has been able to paint Halter as the poster boy for “outside special interest groups,” while she represents the people of Arkansas.
While I’m thrilled to see national labor unions actually trying to do something in a southern, right-to-work state like Arkansas, I’m tempted to say “Where the hell have you been?” The national labor movement is in the mess it’s in today (down to 12% union density) because of its longstanding failure to organize the Sunbelt as more and more industry fled northern states and moved south and west. As in the case with Lincoln and Halter, labor is left mostly powerless when it comes to pressuring politicians from these key states with growing populations. Their only recourse is to pour tons of money into it and paint themselves as an outside special interest group, which, from the perspective of an Arkansan would seem pretty accurate.
Nikki Haley was supported big time by Mitt Romney in addition to Sarah Palin. It’s rather interesting that she is supporting several women. Isn’t it also interesting that there are no exciting female politicians in the Democratic party other than Hillary? How many Democratic women voted for Hillary in the primary? How many Democratic female office holders voted for her? And how many Democratic women who voted for Hillary will cross over and vote for a strong Republican woman? People want leadership…whether male or female. The Democrats sabotaged their female leader and too many women went along with it. Now that our worst fears are validated, where will some of these women go? And where will the independents go? But what is going on in Nevada….Couldn’t the Republicans have found better candidates? Not too smart.
” And how many Democratic women who voted for Hillary will cross over and vote for a strong Republican woman?”
About the same number as how many Democrats are in the teabaggers.
There are quite a few Democrats in the TEA party movement. One doesn’t need to vote Republican to be Taxed Enough Already and long for a return to Constitutional principles of limited government, respect for personal property, and EQUAL rights (not special rights).
I don’t know who started the rumor that Tea partiers are Republicans. Probably the same folks who insist they are racist terrorists. Wrong on all counts.
As noted above, you can change the candidate’s gender, and you can change the candidate’s race, but you can’t change the underlying message, and that is one overtly hostile to women and minorities.
I think you vastly underestimate the intelligence of voting women. Sarah Palin was cynically plucked from obscurity in a desperate political ploy to attract women voters. It didn’t work. Not by a long shot.
As seen in 2008, people vote on beliefs and message, not gender.
And you say there are no exciting women democratic politicians? You’re forgetting the most successful female politician in all of American History: Madame Speaker of the House.
As a postcript, I’d add that many progressives were behind that sabotage…which makes me want to reevaluate if that’s the group I want to identify with. Surely, there’s another group along the same lines, but smarter and wiser….These last 2 years have not been positive politically.
Taylor, you forgot to mention another win for women last night: Maine Senate President Elizabeth “Libby” Mitchell’ victory in the democratic primary. She got 35 percent of the vote in a four-way race and was endorsed by Bill Clinton who made robot calls for her.
I was mainly concentrating on marquee races. But you’re right, it’s a great win.
Listening to MJ this morning,the contempt that the media elite express towards unions is fairly stunning. Sam Stein did nothing to support them. Progressive? Sam? Not much.
I am sorry Halter lost and if I lived in Ak I would have voted for him. You do have to admire Lincoln’s pluck. Nevertheless, the WH dismissing the unions like they are only further damages the Democratic brand in my eyes.
It breaks my heart the extent to which unions have been demonized when that is one of forces that gave us a strong middle class at one time in this country.I know that there have been excesses like in any other organization but a country without strong unions and a strong middle class is a banana republic.
It is beginning to dawn on me that the reason we don’t see our national leaders working for us it that their thinking is global and not national,their loyalities are to the multi-nationals not to the american public.
Nevertheless, the WH dismissing the unions like they are only further damages the Democratic brand in my eyes.
Stating the obvious is hardly being dismissive. If I were a union member I think I’d have to question whether spending 10 million dollars on a primary in a “right to work” state made a whole lot of sense.
Nikki Haley will be interesting to watch. Good for her beating down the forces of evil in South Carolina.
The Arkansas Senatorial race is the only race in which I’m rooting for the Republican candidate, Boozman, to win in November. That’s how much I detest the Clinton’s and their flunkies like Blanche Lincoln and Rahm Emanuel. I have no beef with the contention that Hillary opened up the electoral process for women. That is an entirely seperate issue. My problem lies with who Hillary and Bill are as people and politicians, and NOT with generic women politicians. Peace
SO predictable. You rail at people for supporting Rep for months then you say this. Just a classic case of Clinton Derangement that leads to no good end for women.
“Since Hillary Clinton’s historic presidential run for office, the 18 million cracks have created a political opening.”
Let’s not forget about Shirley Chisholm and Geraldine Ferrarro.
I never forget either, but the truth is neither of these women are in the same league as what Hillary did. She was the first woman to win a presidential primary race. HRC then went on to become Sect. of State, again, unmatchable.
“As for Democratic women rising… .. Since Hillary Clinton, well, as I’ve been writing for months, the new action has been on the right.”
Taylor, any ideas why this is?
You can’t plan something like what happened last night on the right. The truth is that Rep. are so bankrupt on ideas and power that it caused a void to appear.
We’ve got good women in the House and Senate, but we’re going to need more to combat what women on the right want to do to women’s freedoms through legislation and beyond.
Boxer is in for a catfight against Carly. Democrats need to defend that seat like their soul depends on it.
OMG…I thought you were a republican…I’m in the wrong Party…LOL…
That’s the biggest compliment you could pay me, as I try to be as neutral as possible in my writing.
I’m a liberal, but I checked out of hyper-partisan politics after the 2008 election and I don’t intend to return.
I know Taylor…Besides knowing your stuff, what I like about you is how you are Fair & Balanced (no pun intended)
in all your reporting…You call it as you see it regardless
of party…Which many people don’t seem to get…Its still the far left banging heads with the far right and nothing gets done for the majority waiting in the middle of the road dodging traffic…Until the “Rise of Women”…
Women’s Rising…Hahaha…Its a “Coming Out Party”…
This is nothing new to women, its what they have always done…for their families…Modestly & Gracefully…
When I was a kid I got in a fight, I was on top pounding away encircled by 30 plus hostiles cheering on the adversary…Win or lose I was in a dangerous situation…Someone ran to my house to tell my parents, Dad wasn’t home…Mom, who was just the so called Sweet Lady roars out of the house turning into a Tiger as she approaches the large cheering crowd fearlessly that gives way to the oncoming Tiger…Mom grabs the big guy on top of me that I didn’t know was there and flung him aside like he was a child as she grabbed me by the hair and whisked me away to safety where she turned back into Sweet Mom…Dad may have taught me how to be tough & fearless, Mom taught me how to Use them Gracefully…
Now women are going to be a larger voice in their communities and countries and do what they’ve always done for their children with Modesty & Grace…
Welcome to the Party Women…
Great article by Jim Bennett: She is Man…
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/07/she-8217-s-the-man/8125/
PS: Love your hate mail…must be from cheerleaders…at the Prison camp…
Your page also needs sharing links…I may not need them but those that don’t know how to share need easy tools to use…
By the way, I got your emails on that story, so thanks. I just have been buried in work and couldn’t respond.
Re the share tools, I know, I know. It’s just been very busy, but we’ll get it done.
I’m sorry..It didn’t look like they went through…I more then understand Taylor…I don’t look for responses, just keeping you updated…
I really do try to respond, but it just depends on how crazy the day is. I appreciate the heads up. Everyone should read it.