Democrat (NE) Bob Kerrey aims to beat the odds again in a GOP-dominated state

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/article/20121025/NEWS/710259899/1707#democrat-bob-kerrey-aims-to-beat-the-odds-again-in-a-gop-dominated-state

By Paul Goodsell

WAYNE, Neb. — Andy Petersen is the kind of voter that Democrat Bob Kerrey needs in the Nebraska race for U.S. Senate.

A junior at Wayne State College, Petersen is a registered Republican. Until now, the 27-year-old Army veteran has been leaning toward State Sen. Deb Fischer, Kerrey's GOP rival.

Wednesday, Petersen listened to Kerrey speak to about 175 people at a town hall forum at Wayne State.

The good news for Kerrey is that Petersen came away with a more favorable impression of Kerrey than he had before. In fact, he's willing to consider voting for him.

FULL story at link.

[brooklynite]

1. Not going to happen...

Like to think otherwise, but seeing no traction here, and nonevof my DSCC contactscare talking up this race, unlike ND, AZ and IN.

[vi5]

2. While I'll take any Dem we can get....

Kerrey is not one of the losses I'll be shedding too many tears over. The last thing we need is more of his centrist, third way, "bipartisan" bullcrap. And if I thought he'd just be another Senator with no seniority and no power I'd be o.k. with it because a moderate centrist dem is probably all we'd get in Nebraska. But the way the Democrats tend to run, they'd probably give him all sorts of leadership positions as well and give him way more power than he would deserve or be entitled to.

[Zambero]

4. Kerry is no Ben Nelson

While in the Senate, he was a pragmatic centrist in the context of working out compromises with GOP Senators who might have otherwise maintained a hardline stance. The late Senator Ted Kennedy was able to work in a similar manner. While in the Senate Nelson has displayed no such tendency or ability to move things forward, preferring to fall in line with Republican positions especially on close and important legislative issues. And his thinly veiled ploy during the "Obamacare" debate, which would have given one state favorable treatment with Medicare payments, backfired big time and caused Dems much political grief.

Kerry is the type of Democratic Senator we can accept from a conservative state. Not a rubber stamp vote for Republican side, but a true advocate for bipartisan (when it was more than just a hollow buzz word) cooperation in the manner of how business was conducted before absolute obstructionism became the order of the day. The Tea Party has to be held accountable for the current state of gridlock, but if the Senate is to be transformed into a functional system once again, it will need to so one seat at a time. Having Bob Kerry as a U.S. Senator would be a step in the right direction. Hopefully he can affect many more Nebraska voters in the way he did at this particular campaign event.

[vi5]

5. Well, we'll see.....

And isn't it Kerrey? But in any event as I said I do agree that he would be as good as we could expect and probably better in Nebraska which is pretty deep red. No doubt about that. I'm not naive enough to think we could get some firebrand liberal in there.

My issue isn't whether he would be a fine, centrist Senator for the state of Nebraska. My issue is that at this point the notion of old school bipartisanship is (or should be) completely dead. It's not going to happen. At all. On any issue. Bipartisan and centrist means simply any Democrat willing to embrace Republican ideas. We've seen where that gets us. And if it's just a matter of for what he needs to do within Nebraska then again, I'm fine with that. I understand it.

But the National party tends to elevate the naive bipartisan fetishists to positions of outsize power and leadership and give them key committee leadership positions. I could see them doign the same with Kerrey because of his elder statesman status, and that's what I would have an issue with.

[IADEMO2004]

3. Fischer Land Grab must have had an impact. I see ridiculous "boundary clarifying ads"

http://www.fischerlandgrab.com/

and to the purists. Bernie Sanders or Al Franken are not going to be elected in Nebraska. We need a Dem in the Majority Leader position not Mitch McConnell. Bob Kerry is an improvement over Ben Nelson. Deb Fischer and family are just awful people.