Slog News & Arts

Line Out

Music & Nightlife

« Phoning A Genius | Stiff Upper Lip? Or Cocksucker... »

Thursday, November 2, 2006

Who Ya Gonna Call?

posted by on November 2 at 17:35 PM

President Bush was in Montana today, trying to improve Republicans’ chances in the down-to-the-wire Senate race that I wrote about for this week’s Stranger.

02bush.l.jpg

What’s interesting about the Bush visit to Montana is who the national Democrats are sending out there in response: No one.

The Montana Senate race is all about a new kind of Democrat — the rugged, rural, populist Democrat embodied, in this particular Montana race, by third-generation farmer Jon Tester. And there’s not a very deep bench of national-level rural Democrats to send to rally voters in Montana, a state that doesn’t much care for citified liberals.

So while Bill Clinton was in Arizona today trying to tip that suddenly-close Senate race into Democratic hands, and while Barack Obama, Michael J. Fox, and Gen. Wesley Clark were in Virginia today trying to boost the chances of Democrat Jim Webb, there’s really no one to send to Tester’s rescue as his opponent, Republican incumbent Conrad Burns, closes in on Tester in the polls.

I’ve been emailing today with a well-placed Democrat in Montana who tells me that tonight Tester will be filming a last-minute commercial employing the closest thing the Democrats have to a national figure who can talk to rural voters: Brian Schweitzer.

Who’s he? Exactly. But lucky for Tester, Schweitzer happens to be the current governor of Montana, who pulled off the “Montana Miracle” in 2004 by putting the governorship in liberal hands for the first time in 16 years (and this during the same election that saw Bush take Montana by 20 points).

Will there be another “Montana Miracle” this election cycle? Who knows, but there is this….

As President Bush lands in Montana to plead for support for Sen. Conrad Burns, a new poll released Thursday shows challenger Jon Tester with a commanding 21% lead among early voters.

RSS icon Comments

1

As I understand it, if Burns returns to the Senate (or even if he doesn't, for that matter) he is likely to be indicted. If he is, and has to resign, won't the Democratic governor be free to appoint a new, presumably Democratic Senator?

Posted by Catalina Vel-DuRay | November 2, 2006 6:39 PM
2

Montana is more purple than red. It went to Clinton in '96.

Schweitzer's win was no miracle, either. Judy Martz was almost universally reviled.

I think Tester will win, too.

Funny thing about Montana is that the right wing is as hardcore as you will find anywhere. But the majority of citizens are the "leave me alone" rural types who distrust all politicians, loathe carpetbaggers, and often don't register a partisan affiliation.

Burns is an absolute moron, and a dick to boot. The MT right loves him because he can't talk too good and he uses words like "ragheads" and "niggers," and suggests he's in on super secret plans about Iraq. That he is polling so high suggests Montanans are idiots, by and large.

After living in Billings for 11 months, I'm not inclined to disagree. I know some Montanans I love dearly (my husband and his family among them), but for the most part I wish Montana would just go away. It is a vapid fuckhole of karaoke bars where leathery women with big hair sing "Desperado" to get laid.

Posted by David Summerlin | November 2, 2006 7:20 PM
3

George Bush is to a cowboy hat as Mark Finley is to a wig

Posted by Cowboy my ass | November 2, 2006 7:41 PM
4

i don't really have anything to add to this thread, but I wanted to say that I was really looking forward to reading eli's article. I thought it was really well done and provided an interesting look into a story that I personally find really fascinating.

Posted by charles | November 2, 2006 10:50 PM
5

You actually answered your own question, Eli.

Montana, a state that doesn’t much care for citified liberals.

They're actually doing Tester a favor by not sending any of their mainstream talking heads out there. It would likely turn off their casual voters and growing base.

Posted by Gomez | November 3, 2006 9:18 AM
6

They need a blue-collar populist figure to go out there and stump for him. Maybe someone should get Ed Schultz on the phone.

Posted by Orv | November 3, 2006 10:44 AM
7

I thought that article was excellent.

Posted by Dianna | November 3, 2006 12:30 PM
8

I tell you who the people of Montana would respond to: General Wesley Clark. The man has gravitas out the kazoo, he's very well-respected by veterans, and he's not perceived as some citified latte-sipping liberal type. Had he been Kerry's choice for VP, the election would not have been close enough to steal.

I *heart* Brian Schweitzer. I think he and Tester, and the others like them, are the future of the Democratic Party, a return to its populist roots.

Posted by Geni | November 3, 2006 12:39 PM
9

President Bush's "tag cloud"
http://chir.ag/phernalia/preztags/
What words he says most often... this one is the 1/31/06 state of the union address.
Unsurprisingly, terrorist is #1.

Posted by treacle | November 3, 2006 5:12 PM
10
Posted by vasia | November 5, 2006 9:35 PM
11

I'l be back... :)

Posted by kelly blue book | November 6, 2006 11:54 AM
12

Very interesting website. Keep up the outstanding work and thank you...

Posted by teenage naturism | November 7, 2006 5:09 PM
13

Very interesting website. Keep up the outstanding work and thank you...

Posted by naked women | November 8, 2006 11:52 AM

Comments Closed

In order to combat spam, we are no longer accepting comments on this post (or any post more than 14 days old).