The headline in the September 24th issue of the Lincoln Journal-Star on-line reads,
“Nelson emerging as Democratic skeptic of Obama”
The headline in this case doesn’t tell the story, rather, it just mimicked the opening line in the story by Henry C. Jackson of the Associated Press. The true headline should have been something along the lines of
“Nelson Dwindling Poll Numbers Cause Flip Against Obama”
And that is what is so fascinating about the article. The reality of re-election and the weight of poor polling has Nelson and some fellow Democrats suddenly finding religion and discovering that Obama is toxic to their re-election.
As Jackson points out, Nelson was full-in with Obama the first two years. But it was ObamaCarre and in particular the fact that Nelson was the 60th and deciding vote that allowed ObamaCare to become law along with the embarrassing "Cornhusker Kickback" episode that raised the ire of Nebraskans to red-hot levels:
“Up for re-election in 2006, the veteran senator sought out then-freshman Sen. Obama to campaign for him and raise money in Nebraska. In 2008, Nelson endorsed Obama early in his long presidential primary with Hillary Rodham Clinton. And once Obama was sworn in as president, Nelson provided a key vote to pass the president’s health-care legislation.
Over time, though, Nelson’s hug of Obama has turned into an arm’s length relationship.
The health-care debate cost Nelson dearly, and he took the unusual step of advertising more than two years before his re-election campaign.”
An ironic twist, is that Nebraskans are a fair people but one thing you don’t do is play us for fools. We have a long memory if you do, just ask former Governor Kay Orr.
Nelson’s political career began with his defeat of then-Governor Orr in 1990. His victory in a Republican dominated state was fueled in large part by so many long time Republican voters deserting Orr because they felt she dissed them.
Governor Orr earlier in her term had to react to the Reagan Administration’s changes in the federal tax code because our state system was tied at that time to the fed’s. So change in Washington impacted our tax code.
Our state income taxes increased as a result through no fault of Governor Orr but it became her problem when confronted with this reality.
Every tax payer in the state saw that more state taxes were being deducted from their pay checks. Instead of saying “sorry”, let me review it and if that has happened we will fix it, Orr told all of us that we were wrong. And she didn't do it once, she kept tell us we were wrong inspite of the fact that each of us saw more coming out in our pay stubs each time.
I have no idea why she did it.
I know life long Republicans who were insulted by her consistent denial and voted for Ben Nelson because they felt Orr was playing them for fools.
Now fast forward to today. When confronted with ObamaCare and the every building evidence of its horrible consequences; its out of control costs and reduced quality care, Nelson continues to deny that's true and defends ObamaCare as the best thing since sliced bread.
Come next fall in the heat of the election, I can tell you that the Republican will pound Nelson over the head on this issue and will force Nelson to answer for it at every opportunity. And each time Nelson does, Nebraskans will be reminded that he is playing us for fools.
Wouldn’t that be political irony for Nelson, who got his first statewide political victory because his Republican opponent was perceived to play Nebraskans as fools, see his own political career come to an end for the same reason . . .
