Although I am just as sad about Representative Oberstar's ouster as I am about Senator Feingold's, I am still shocked to my boots about it.
Minnesota's 8th District was safe. No worries at all. In fact, Jim Oberstar has represented the Minnesota arrowhead for the past 36 years. He started before I was even born. Solid blue as long as I've known its existence.
But something happened in this race. I read from trackers, most notably Nate Silver of the fivethirtyeight New York Times blog, that he took MN-08 from "lock Democrat" to "lean Dem."
OK, so he has a fight this time around. It's within the realm of possibility that Oberstar would have to sweat it out because Obama's so unpopular that it might affect even House races. But lose?
Every other congressional seat in Minnesota was called at around 1 in the morning, I think, and yet Oberstar's was not. And then I saw this Jim Cravaack upstart, a Republican naval officer and former pilot for Northwest, hanging tough with the grand lion of the Minnesota delegation. And even though Oberstar was leading, he wasn't pulling away, he wasn't shaking this guy.
I heard one report say that Oberstar had St. Louis County, the county which includes Duluth, presumably a place he has in his back pocket, and they always report last. OK, he'll pull it out in the end, I thought, as the race remained close through 70%, 80%, even 90% of the precincts reporting.
And then, at around 92% of the precincts reporting, at around 3:00, I think, Cravaack pulled ahead. No! Oberstar's been around as long as I've been on this earth, and he's now losing?!?! And as the precincts slowly trickled up to 94, 95%, Oberstar was still chasing him. Where in the hell was Duluth???
And then I refreshed the CNN.com screen one last time and I saw their logo that denotes when they have declared in a race. And I saw the red "R" on top of the blue "D." What was once considered safe was now gone. Those goddamn teabagger bastards took poor Oberstar in their gunsights, ambushed him, chased him down and got him in the end. I am stunned and crestfallen. And I don't even live in the Eighth District.
As I lamented in my last post about Feingold, I'm still baffled as to why Oberstar's constituents turned their backs on him this election. Was it that he voted for the health insurance reform bill? Was it that he went negative? Did he not campaign enough in Duluth? Did people in the other parts of the district think he was neglecting them? Was it just one of those wave elections where Oberstar was in jeopardy because he was in the same party as Obama? Did people think he was in office too long? Do they think he's too old? Are the people there racists so hellbent on taking down a half-black man that leads their country that they'll take down anyone else that even smiles in his general direction?
I don't know. All I know is that, like all of Wisconsin, voters in this state's Eighth District are stupid. They have traded away the Chair of the Transportation Committee for a backbencher who has a mission of repealing the health insurance reform bill, something that ain't gonna fuckin' happen, asshole.
I saw his concession speech in the news today. His words were spoken quietly, as if to hold his composure lest he start sobbing on the spot if he spoke at a normal level. And he looked ashen-faced, like he still doesn't believe he lost, and that he is now facing the fact that he has been forced into a career change at the age of 76.
The last congressperson whose name I remember learning, memorizing and seeing in the newspaper when I was a child was voted out of office Tuesday. Rep. Oberstar is one of only a few people who is taking the death of his life in public service worse than I am.
I mean this with all due respect, Representative Oberstar -- Poor bastard.
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