Opinion of Blanche Lincoln

[Astatine]

Her legacy for losing election by wide margins lives on in this forum.

[Suburbia]

FF.

She should have ran for Senate in 2020, or be the AR DEM chair.

[Astatine]

FF.

She should have ran for Senate in 2020, or be the AR DEM chair.

Well, if doing so, she would get... blanched.

Could see her being Sec. of Agriculture in a Biden Administration (She was actually considered for that position in 2016).

[Ancestral Republican]

Lean FF. Not a big fan of moderate Dems but it's the best you can hope for in a red state.

[😥]

Massive FF

[Battista Minola 1616]

I am sorry but the best "incumbent Senator losing by wide margins" is Republican/Liberal Jacob Javits.

[RussFeingoldWasRobbed]

HP. Killed the public option

[RINO Tom]

Lean FF. Not a big fan of moderate Dems but it's the best you can hope for in a red state.

Hindsight is 20/20, but I think it's an interesting debate of just how liberal you could be in AR at that time throughout her tenure and still get reelected ... AR isn't exactly a "solid red state" until 2008, IMO.  While it's easy to look back and think that only "DINOs" could be elected in these now-gone Southern states, someone like Robert Byrd was nothing short of a party loyalist and clear liberal, and he suffered zero consequences for it in a state that gave Trump his second biggest victory in 2020.

[Ancestral Republican]

Lean FF. Not a big fan of moderate Dems but it's the best you can hope for in a red state.

Hindsight is 20/20, but I think it's an interesting debate of just how liberal you could be in AR at that time throughout her tenure and still get reelected ... AR isn't exactly a "solid red state" until 2008, IMO.  While it's easy to look back and think that only "DINOs" could be elected in these now-gone Southern states, someone like Robert Byrd was nothing short of a party loyalist and clear liberal, and he suffered zero consequences for it in a state that gave Trump his second biggest victory in 2020.

I think with Byrd it was more that he was so iconic in the state (I can't think of any other examples of figures in history who can compare) and would always be reelected no matter what. Manchin has to have such an extreme moderate voting record because he doesn't have that kind of sway.

HP. Killed the public option

In truth, the public option could have been passed with a simple majority, but the Democratic Party allowed moderate Dems and procedural concerns to excuse the fact they couldn't get it done. Moderate Dems deserve a share of the blame, however, none moreso than Republican Joe Lieberman.

[Alben Barkley]

HP. Killed the public option

I don’t blame her for that as much as Lieberman. She was trying to hang on to her seat (although it turned out to be in vain); Lieberman had no excuse.

Plus, she might have been persuadable if the votes were there (which they would have been had Martha Coakley not run a terrible campaign in MA), but Lieberman was threatening to f—king filibuster. That’s how dead set against it he was.

[Del Tachi]

Lean FF. Not a big fan of moderate Dems but it's the best you can hope for in a red state.

Hindsight is 20/20, but I think it's an interesting debate of just how liberal you could be in AR at that time throughout her tenure and still get reelected ... AR isn't exactly a "solid red state" until 2008, IMO.  While it's easy to look back and think that only "DINOs" could be elected in these now-gone Southern states, someone like Robert Byrd was nothing short of a party loyalist and clear liberal, and he suffered zero consequences for it in a state that gave Trump his second biggest victory in 2020.

True that.  One of the biggest reasons for her 2010 "Blanching" was that AR Dems had a particularly decisive primary that year.  Bill Halter challenged incumbent Lincoln from the left, bested her in the primary, and then lost by only 10k votes in the runoff.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Lean FF. Not a big fan of moderate Dems but it's the best you can hope for in a red state.

Hindsight is 20/20, but I think it's an interesting debate of just how liberal you could be in AR at that time throughout her tenure and still get reelected ... AR isn't exactly a "solid red state" until 2008, IMO.  While it's easy to look back and think that only "DINOs" could be elected in these now-gone Southern states, someone like Robert Byrd was nothing short of a party loyalist and clear liberal, and he suffered zero consequences for it in a state that gave Trump his second biggest victory in 2020.

Byrd was never really genuinely popular back in West Virginia. My whole family is from there, and my understanding is that Byrd was a "meh" character who did not elicit the same passions that more controversial figures like Arch Moore generated. Byrd was more or less tolerated because he brought back a lot of pork and everyone in every holler knew it.

Perhaps POTUS36 can possibly elaborate more on this, but from what I've heard, Byrd was all about the Benjamins.