Tammy Baldwin for Senate?

Tammy Baldwin was interviewed a couple of weeks ago in the Capitol Times. She discussed how she was thinking about running for Senate and how the rest of the State was not that different from her own district ( a mix of urban and rural). My only thought was that she sure doesn't get out in the rest of the State much. There are vast differences, Also, she fails to mention that she has a rural problem in her current district. The problem for Tammy is going to be once you get 100-200 miles outside of Madison the level of education drops, the income level drops, and the people are generally more conservative. Her message is going to be a tough sell. Tammy's legislative record is sparse but a lot of that is due to being in the minority. The problem is that to adequately explain that you need an infomercial. Sure the things that she stands for should be popular among the people outside of Madison but these are the same people who voted against their best interests in 2010 and they will do it again in 2012.

Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger

My tip of the hat goes to Isthmus for pointing out that Chad told them that he was not against all of the 2007 pages of the health care reform legislation but his website says to get rid of it.  So a wag of the finger to Chad Lee for trying to pull a fast one.  He not only talks repeal on his website, he has said in debates and written in profile pieces that he is for the repeal of the health care reform measures.  Chad which is it?  Do you have this concern for your fellow man who has a pre-existing condition or are you happy that you now have coverage with your pre-existing condition.  I myself have a pre-existing condition that requires me to be a big user of the medical establishment and I am all for health care reform.  In fact I would be in favor of repeal if we could guarantee replacement with a single payer heavily regulated system.

Chad Lee vs Tammy Baldwin

This has been an interesting race to watch.  Contrary to what John Nichols says I don't think that Chad Lee is a good candidate.  His campaign consists of a narrow world view and Republican talking points.  Tammy Baldwin would be vulnerable if there was the right candidate.  In Chad Lee  you get a devout Christian with some business background with scant knowledge of our system of government, little knowledge of the constitution, and without a clue on foreign affairs.  Consider, he is for the balanced budget amendment.  OK, what are the details?  Whenever there are terrible economic times the balanced budget amendment comes up.  Where was Mr. Lee in 2001? 2002? 2003? 2004?...No where, it wasn't until 2009 that deficits mattered.  Doesn't carry much weight with me.  I have advocated bringing the budget into balance for years but recognize that in times of crisis deficit spending maybe necessary.  The budget should have been brought into balance in 2004, even with the wars.  So, Chad how vaguely are you going to write the amendment so that you can support deficits by Republican Presidents.  Consider, his position on war.  He is for exhausting all means short of war in dealing with other nations (sounds like a Democrat) but yet supports the war in Iraq.  That would be the war that the President decided that we should start after what seemed like 10 minutes of negotiation where we didn't believe what we were told which turned out to be true.  We wouldn't be in Iraq if Saddam could have got his position on Fox, but instead Fox reported that Saddam was lying when in fact he was being truthful.  Chad is also willing to attack Iran (not giving diplomacy a chance) to stop them from getting nuclear weapons.  Consider Iran's position, their sworn enemy (remember we labeled them the axis of evil) has troops and who knows what weapons systems on 3 sides of their country.  Seems like a threat to me.  What is the fear of a nuclear Iran?  They can't attack the US.  They could attack our troops.  If they did we have something like 2000 warheads that we could drop on their country.  They could attack Israel, but again Israel has somewhere around 100 warheads more than enough to obliterate the country.  Chad is unconcerned about Pakistan, an unstable and corrupt country with 80-90 warheads.  This is where our enemies could get a bomb.  He also would privatize Social Security, eliminate Medicare, repeal Obamacare, and bring Religion into the government.  I'm afraid once again the only choice in Tammy Baldwin.