Californians are left with a deeply unsatisfying choice for the U.S. Senate this year. The incumbent, Democrat Barbara Boxer, has failed to distinguish herself during her 18 years in office. There is no reason to believe that another six-year term would bring anything but more of the same uninspired representation.
Naturally, the San Francisco Chronicle doesn’t like Carly Fiorina either. That, however, can be filed under “Reaction, Knee Jerk.” This is the newspaper that’s long been considered by Democrats as nothing more than a satellite campaign office. The import of its declining to endorse Boxer, especially in this election, cannot be understated. The editorial says as much.
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It is extremely rare that this editorial page would offer no recommendation on any race, particularly one of this importance. This is one necessary exception.
Rarely, if ever, has so much been at stake for progressives in America. They got the president they wanted. They got a powerful Speaker of the House from one of the most progressive districts in the country. And they got what they thought was going to be a decades-long mandate. Twenty months later, it’s all disintegrating.
While most of the left-friendly media is doubling down for the Democrats and getting in circle-the-wagons mode, the Chronicle still can’t bring itself to make a case for Barbara Boxer.
Boxer, first elected in 1992, would not rate on anyone’s list of most influential senators. Her most famous moments on Capitol Hill have not been ones of legislative accomplishment, but of delivering partisan shots.
Take a moment to savor the delicious irony of the San Francisco Chronicle faulting a Democratic senator for being partisan. I double-checked-this wasn’t printed in The Onion.
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While an inordinate amount of attention has been paid recently to Senate races in Delaware and Alaska, this race, along with Reid/Angle in Nevada, are the real linchpins for the Democrats in this election. If one of these seats goes to the Republicans, the likelihood of a GOP takeover is greatly increased. If both go, it’ll be a bloodbath that will have the Democrats wistfully pining away for the halcyon days of November, 1994.
The Chronicle knows this and still can’t carry Boxer’s water any longer.
The California Left is just now beginning to realize what we on the Right here in the Golden State have known all along: Barbara Boxer is in the Senate for Barbara Boxer and not for her constituents. As she so clearly demonstrated last year with the “Ma’am” incident, she’s in it to be fawned over and treated differently, not to deliver anything worthwhile to the state of California.
Boxer is such a train-wreck of ineptitude that the Chronicle never lets up on the criticism of her but manages to give a backhanded compliment to Carly Fiorina:
Boxer’s campaign, playing to resentment over Fiorina’s wealth, is not only an example of the personalized pettiness that has infected too much of modern politics, it is also a clear sign of desperation.
In past elections, Boxer has had the good fortune of having Republican opponents who were inept, underfunded, on the fringe right – or combinations thereof. Her opponent this time, Fiorina, is proving to be articulate, well-funded and formidable.
This is the most damning non-endorsement in recent history. Barbara Boxer has had a cake-walk of a campaigning career, which is the main reason she’s been able to be so awful for so long. The Chronicle is correct in pointing out that she hasn’t been challenged much, which is also true. Now that everyone finally has to pay attention, however, Boxer is withering under the scrutiny.
In what is shaping up to be a once-in-a-generation election for the GOP, the party may very well have just received an extraordinary boost from the San Francisco Chronicle, of all newspapers.
Hope. Change.
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