Between The Lines of Primary Day 2012
Yesterday there were two primary day battles that I was watching very closely. This first is obviously the one that everyone was watching, Scott Walker’s recall election in Wisconsin. The second was in New Jersey where I am from originally and where my family still resides.
Let’s talk about the recall election first. Scott Walker won and it is likely that progressive will be blamed somehow because progressive are always blamed when Obama fucks up. That’s right, I said it mother fucker; Obama fucked up!
Obama had promised that if labor was ever challenged, he would put on his marching boots and stand with labor. But when Governor Walker attacked labor in a serious way, where was Obama? This was a close election and the exit polls have shown that Obama has a great deal of support among voters in the state. All he had to do was make a campaign stop in support of Tom Barrett and it almost certainly would have swayed the election.
But he didn’t because he was afraid that if he did and Barrett lost, he would be tied to a loser. Well, the bad news for Obama is that he is tied to a loser… himself! By not showing his support for Barrett and labor, he has allowed Walker to walk all over the labor movement. You can now expect Republicans to attack labor in more states and Obama will probably lose a lot of respect among voters in Wisconsin and around the country. Plus, a Republican Governor in Wisconsin won’t help the President’s chances in winning that state.
Now on to New Jersey where two Democratic congressmen duked it out do to redistricting. Rep. Steve Rothman was a pretty progressive congressman and has been the congressman in my family’s district for a while. He also has the advantage of being Jewish which I will talk more about shortly. Rothman also was an Obama supporter.
In the other corner was Rep. Bill Pascrell, who was a big Clinton supporter. Pascrell won and now he will be facing off against the same guy who went up against Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens (at the same time). What? That doesn’t make sense, Harris and Hitchen?
Yeah, as it turns out, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach who debated against Harris and Hitchens is running for congress as a Republican in my home district. While I don’t live there anymore, my family still does. Rothman would have been a better bet in the general election because he is Jewish and he has served the heavily Jewish community there pretty well. He also is a pretty secular guy. Boteach on the other hand is a right wing wacko whose main claim to fame is being Michael Jackson’s spiritual adviser.
Filed under: Current Events, Obama, Politics
