She reveals her thinking to the Capital Times:
"Should I run, I will have to give up my House seat. But I love this state, I love its people and I really want to see Wisconsin flourish again. It would be an amazing opportunity."
An amazing opportunity for Republicans to pick up another Senate seat. And maybe even the House seat she's held so strongly since 1999.
"I am well-known now in south-central Wisconsin," she says. "I win handily across that area. That basically describes the rest of the state. It’s just that I have not introduced myself to folks across the state yet and look forward to that opportunity."
The Madison area "basically describes the rest of the state"? That sounds absurd, but her point is that her district contains urban, suburban, rural, and small town areas.
In her fund-raising appeal, Baldwin spoke of "cynical voices," the ones "doubting me from the very beginning." She wrote, "They said, ‘You’re a woman. You’re a lesbian. And you’re too outspoken.’ "
I think the problem is that she's too liberal. But I understand the strategy of disparaging those terrible voters by calling them homophobic and sexist instead of facing the reality that they aren't as far left as she is. Speaking of "cynical voices."
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I understand the strategy of disparaging those terrible voters by calling them homophobic and sexist instead of facing the reality that they aren't as far left as she is.
Our President employs similar tactics. We're racist, bitter clingers, y'know. How's that working for him?
A new wrinkle on Obama's re-election campaign strategy: "Vote for me or you're racist!"
Baldwin's campaign stragey: "Vote for me or you're homophobic."
Steve Sailer keeps asking why the Republican Party refuses to embrace the strategy that will win white middle class voters... calling for an end to the racial and sexual quota rackets.
I'll vote for a Republican who has the guts to do that.
Republicans seem to be afraid to do this. Why?
Republicans seem to be afraid to do this. Why?
The MSM, both in print and on TV will rip them a new one if they tried.
The MSM, both in print and on TV will rip them a new one if they tried.
Yes, that is true, but they will win elections.
ST,
They are still afraid of the all out verbal assault. There are so few people in that venue that will come to their aid.
Vote for the commie dyke or you are a hater. Seems like a winning slogan to me.
The race and sex quota thing has lost every time voters have had the opportunity to vote on it.
I believe that every referendum sponsored by Ward Connerly to ban race and sex preferences has won.
Judges keep trying to legislate from the bench to undercut this reality, most recently in Michigan.
By the way, Althouse, you failed to mention the name of the group that brought suit against the Michigan ban on race and sex quotas. The name: By Any Means Necessary.
What does that name tell you?
They are still afraid of the all out verbal assault. There are so few people in that venue that will come to their aid.
Let me restate that for you. Our reps, once they are elected, want to be invited to cocktail parties.
Maybe we need to find some reps who don't give a shit whether they are invited to cocktail parties.
Maybe we need to find some reps who don't give a shit whether they are invited to cocktail parties.
Skip most of the Republicans.
Barring the entry of a popular Milwaukee Co. Democratic entity to get votes there, the Senate primary is Baldwin's to lose.
It's statewide she knows she's going to have trouble with.
As for her Congressional District, expect to see every Democratic big-wig in Madison, Beloit, and elsewhere run. I'm sure Mark Pocan is in if Baldwin vacates the seat.
What Drew said.
It appears more likely, given the context, that the cynical voices she refers to aren't voters, but party functionaries who were cynical about potential voters in her district.
I'm not familiar with Wisconsin politics. As I understand it, Althouse pointed out that her district seems to represent a range of WI voters. Given that, the cynics were wrong.
And Tammy Baldwin was right not to be cynical.
So if Baldwin up and moved to another house rep district and ran, which ones would she win (in this hypothetical there would be no entrenched incumbent). The WI delegation is 5-3 GOP. Tammy isn't going to win those 5. She would win Moore's seat, but probably not Ron Kind's.
Baldwin is too much in tune with the Madison part of her district to run for statewide office and hasn't done anything (unlike Paul Ryan) that anybody can name. District's like Baldwin's encourage mediocrity and she has delivered.
Maybe she thinks that it is a plus to see a Madison lesbian socialist attempt to become a State of Wisconsin lesbian socialist. It is sure to thrill the heart of every lover of equality for lesbian socialists, who are a minority ethnic group born that way. Hmmm.
Districts like Baldwin's encourage mediocrity and she has delivered.
Yes. The two parties only want people in power. It doesn't matter if they're actually, you know, not competent.
The bar for competent in a Legislator is right above able to stand while sober.
As to the question: Can she win?
Well, that depends on how spectacularly the Republican Party screws up in nut-job nominating, doesn't it?
I hope she runs. She just might be the candidate that finally convinces the democrats north of highway 29 that Truman is not on the ticket.
Sadly in the end she won't run. The Dems:
1)know she is an idiot
2)Can't win
3)Know they can't take back the House
4)May lose the White House
5)NEED to hold the Senate
The nastiness in the next few months will come from the left unless Tammy has a change of heart.
I don't find it difficult to believe that there were many cynical voices doubting her for the reasons she mentions when she ran for office 20 years ago. I am relived, however, that Althouse and fellow commenters agree that those 20 years have seen the end of sexism and anti-gay, not to mention racist, sentiment in American society. Any comments I hear along those lines these days are probably just in good fun.
So, to show her "appeal," right away she puts up the remark that she's a lesbian.
Nope. This is not the same thing as Chris Cristie appealing to voters in New Jersey, "overcoming" the hadicap of being fat.
Politicians are told that if they're too fat they'll lose election bids.
I think the People will surprise the stock in trade of mavens who "predict" things based on their political expertise ... Which just means they earn money when they gloam onto ambitious candidates.
Oh, yeah. Her first big test is if she can "dial for dollars!"
Not so much that "half of Wisconsin" know who she is.
I am relived, however, that Althouse and fellow commenters agree that those 20 years have seen the end of sexism and anti-gay, not to mention racist, sentiment in American society.
Give it a break. People aren't dying because folks like to tell jokes about women, blacks and gays.
Your shit stinks, too, Triangle Man.
Find something worthwhile to do with your time.
Tammy Baldwin profoundly misunderstands Wisconsin voters.
Her being a lesbian is a secondary issue in this election - Wisconsin voters have elected gays to congressional offices in the past.
The primary issue is her progressive politics. The majority of Wisconsin voters have turned conservative, witness the outcomes of the Gubernatorial, Senatorial, and Supreme Court elections.
Those in rainbow and unicorn brigade believe the Wisconsin voters are clamoring to recall assorted republican state senators, and Governor Walker as well, and elect people who will restore the progressive caliphate. Don't count on it.
If Herb Kohl believed that he could easily be re-elected, he still be in the race.
Tammy Baldwin cannot win election to the US Senate, especially if she has to run on Obama's coattails. Has she seen what has happened to business and industry in most of Wisconsin during Obama's presidency? Especially in northern Wisconsin, the devastation is deep and profound.
At the same time that she is campaigning for office on a progressive "tax the rich and raise the debt ceiling" agenda, voters throughout the state will see that Walker's budget has stabilized their property taxes and made sensible changes to how tax money is spent, thereby eliminating the chronic deficit in Wisconsin's budget.
Wisconsin voters are not homophobes. They are (rightly so) progressive-o-phobes.
I understand the strategy of disparaging those terrible voters by calling them homophobic and sexist instead of facing the reality that they aren't as far left as she is.
Ha! You're catching on. But how will you vote? Especially after you get sick to your stomach at such diversionary tactics and being taken for stupid?
That's what I want to know.
Crack, Althouse's Achilles Heel is her vanity over her IQ.
You should know, as a student of New Age charlatans, that the con artist always studies the weaknesses of his mark.
The Democrats are better aligned to appeal to Althouse's vanity over her IQ.
Tell her how smart she is and she'll fall for anything.
We all have our weaknesses.
Your shit stinks, too, Triangle Man.
Find something worthwhile to do with your time.
That's right. My shit stinks more than your flowery turds.
Baldwin was talking about "cynical voices" not lynch mobs.
Baldwin was talking about "cynical voices" not lynch mobs.
I'm fed up with every asshole who bitches about sexism, racism and homophobia.
They can all go fuck themselves. Including you.
Shit, I work at home. I don't have to go into a fucking office and hear that shit anymore. What a relief!
Well, that depends on how spectacularly the Republican Party screws up in nut-job nominating, doesn't it?
Well, MadMan, the Wisconsin Republicans will have to go some to get a nut job as many standard deviations from the norm as Tammy Baldwin is.
Not that they can't, of course, but somehow I don't think they'll try.
"You people in low-sloping forehead country are racists, sexists, and homophobes! You carry guns and bibles and believe unsophisticated things!"
I guess I'll never understand the tactic of insulting the voters as a method of getting votes.
Was this supposed to be an objective news article??
Profile in courage??
Her being a lesbian is a secondary issue in this election - Wisconsin voters have elected gays to congressional offices in the past.
Including at least one who was (gasp!) a Republican!!
Well, MadMan, the Wisconsin Republicans will have to go some to get a nut job as many standard deviations from the norm as Tammy Baldwin is.
Two such candidates would be endlessly entertaining and very bloggable! Bring it on!
Well, MadMan, the Wisconsin Republicans will have to go some to get a nut job as many standard deviations from the norm as Tammy Baldwin is.
Meet David VanderLeest Or Vandersloot?
He took a chunk out of his wife's hair and threw her on the kitchen floor to stop her from calling the police. On Facebook he calls himself a "pro-Israel Christian Tea Partier, member of the NRA, and a fierce fighter to "EXPOSE ACORN!"
He's not running for the Senate seat, but I'm sure his past behavior is not a deal killer for Wisconsin Republicans by any means.
He's not running for the Senate seat, but I'm sure his past behavior is not a deal killer for Wisconsin Republicans by any means.
So, he's irrelevant, but you drag him out anyway.
... pro-Israel Christian Tea Partier, member of the NRA, and a fierce fighter to "EXPOSE ACORN!
Those are all good things.
Not being a Badger, I get the impression she's saying she thinks she might be too far to the Left for Madison, which I thought was impossible.
So, garbage, if I find a single inmate on any Death Row who claims to be a Democrat, you'll cease to be a Democrat?
That she's running is a good thing. She is ably representing a constituency and hopefully mass communicatin'. Having her in the race will possibly divide the dims and help the 'pubs.
There's a kind of feel good rush when you vote for the black candidate. I've been there and done that. David Dinkins is a fine gentleman of courtly manners and dignified bearing. I voted for him over Giuliani the first time Giuliani ran. Dinkins, I remain convinced, is a much nicer man than Giuliani but he wasn't much of a mayor. I think Dinkins won a lot more votes among the feel good whites than he lost among the bigots.....I don't think this works for lesbians. Who would feel good voting for a lesbian strictly because she's a lesbian? People aren't sufficiently prejudiced against lesbians to generate the feel good factor.
William said...
There's a kind of feel good rush when you vote for the black candidate.
I have a feeling Little Zero has put an end to that for many people.
Dinkins, I remain convinced, is a much nicer man than Giuliani but he wasn't much of a mayor.
Yes, Dinkins was a swell guy.
He made a pact with Al Sharpton and the other black gangsters in NYC that he wouldn't enforce the law against them or their gangs.
Thus, giving us the crack epidemic and an accompanying epidemic of violence.
Yeah, he was a great guy!
"Her being a lesbian is a secondary issue in this election - Wisconsin voters have elected gays to congressional offices in the past."
Like the seat she is running for.
VanderLeest is the Republican running for state senate in a recall election, so apparently repeated wife abusers (he has a long record) are a-okay with teh northern Republicans but God help us if a lesbian law school graduate with no criminal background representes us!
VanderLeest is the Republican running for state senate in a recall election, so apparently repeated wife abusers (he has a long record) are a-okay with teh northern Republicans
He is not the Republican running for Hansen's seat. He is a Republican running for Hansen's seat. There's still a primary, y'know.
The times they are a changing. Walker has slowly exposed the Madison Progressives for what they are...useless parasites.
The Walker GOP could win both seats in 2012.
The Obama boil will be lanced by the voters.
edutcher,
There's a kind of feel good rush when you vote for the black candidate.
I have a feeling Little Zero has put an end to that for many people.
I hope you're right.
There are only a handful of Congressional districts that would elect someone as radical as Baldwin. Ca., NY, Ma., Vermont, maybe would elect her statewide. Wisconsin is on the cusp..we independents decide. Being an independent, if you put a gun to my head and said, "vote for Baldwin" then you'll have to pull that fucking trigger. I don't give a shit about her sexual preference or even that she's so liberal, I voted for Feingold. But, Feingold has a brain, intellectual honesty, and integrity..Baldwin is 0 for 3 in those at bats!
William said.....
Who would feel good voting for a lesbian strictly because she's a lesbian?
Hey a lot of us would vote for a lesbian who would let us get a good feel. Maybe Jodie Foster or that Portia chick?
" ndspinelli said...
Wisconsin is on the cusp..we independents decide. Being an independent...Feingold has a brain, intellectual honesty, and integrity..Baldwin is 0 for 3 in those at bats!"
There is nothing that lacks all three more than an "independent".
Seriously, what the fuck does "independent" mean? I have no opinion on anything? I don't care? I have no political leanings on what would help this country solve it's problems, and improve, and move forward? Describe independent, spinelli.
For instance, I'm neither a Republican nor a Democrat, I'm a Conservative. If you don't have the money, then, don't spend money that you don't have. That was a brief.
I have never once discriminated against lesbians in my consumption of porn. In the real world, I play it as it lays. I think Billie Jean King is a decent, level headed lady. I think Rosie O'Donnell is an obnoxious pile of offal. One of the the reasons she is so obnoxious is because she thinks people don't like her because she's lesbian. No, Rosie, that's not it at all......How far we've come since the days of Bella Abzug. Then it was considered sexist to hint that she might be a lesbian. Only sexists would accuse a self confident, self assertive woman of being a lesbian. Now a lesbian can forthrightly say that she is a lesbian and any problems secondary to that are all your fault. I don't think a real lesbian would really allow herself to be called Tammy. Perhaps, in a cynical masquerade, she's just trying to pass and garner votes in the Madison community.
"AllenS said...
Seriously, what the fuck does "independent" mean?"
It usually means a liberal living the false premise that they are intellectually superior because they are "free thinking" and not beholden to anyone. Otherwise they are too stupid to have an intellectual or philosophical core.
Both types occassionally start a blog.
One of the the reasons she is so obnoxious is because she thinks people don't like her because she's lesbian.
She's in the same demented category (albeit for a different reason) as Margaret Cho.
Seriously, what the fuck does "independent" mean?
It just means someone who doesn't pay attention to anything until election day and then votes for the most physically attractive candidate.
Wow..Curious George, you're not very curious @ all and quite easy to read. "My way or the highway" is the Curious George motto. I vote Dem, Republican, and 3rd party. I never have claimed a party affiliation..I'M AN INDEPENDENT ASSHOLE. Philosophy wise, I'm libertarian. Now..take your prozac.
Gee, Curious George and Allen S, you do realize that Independents now outnumber Dems and Repubs? An independent is a person who votes for Dems, Repubs, and 3rd party. It's folks like you and Lefty loons that keep growing our ranks. So..rant on my brothers..rant on. My philosophy is libertarian..what's yours, kiddie porn should be legal?
Oh and Eric..then you better never run for office because I sense you're butt ugly. Seriously, was there a fire @ the prozac plant?
"ndspinelli said...
Gee, Curious George and Allen S, you do realize that Independents now outnumber Dems and Repubs?"
Only in your addled mind.
"ndspinelli said...My philosophy is libertarian..what's yours, kiddie porn should be legal?"
Oddly, that sorta a libertarian position. Freudian slip?
Let's see...you say you're a libertarian and you voted for Feingold over Johnson?
Are you an idiot or a liar?
I just realized that the screeds against independents is right from the ditto head script. Do you people have any original thoughts?
Unresponsive. Again, your core philosophy is "libertarian" yet you voted Feingold...a statist...over Johnson, who certainly as a conservative GOPer has libertarian leanings.
Are you a liar or an idiot?
Curious, I'm a man who identifies himself..you're apparently a fucking monkey w/ no balls or brains. Responsive enough, monkey man?
So we're going with "both". Got it.
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