Ben Sasse has impressive credentials. He has an undergraduate degree from Harvard; he studied at Oxford; and he has advanced degrees from St. John’s College in Annapolis and Yale University, where he obtained a doctorate in Philosophy. His dissertation at Yale won a couple of awards. He went on to serve in the departments of Health and Justice in the Bush administration, to teach at the University of Texas-Austin, and to become the president of Midland University in Fremont, Nebraska. He’s obviously an intelligent man.
And he may become the next senator from Nebraska if he, as expected, wins the Republican primary today. The way the media is portraying this race, a win for Sasse will be a big win for the Tea Party and a giant thumb in the eye of Mitch McConnell and the Republican Establishment, who lent their support to former state Treasurer Shane Osborn.
That may be the case, but it’s not like Mr. Sasse is Queen Dumbass from the Northwoods. I don’t think he will remind anyone of Christine O’Donnell or Sharron Angle or Todd Akin. Mr. Sasse will be strongly favored to win the general election in November.
His main competition may actually come from Sid Dinsdale, who is polling in second place and has said that he wants to deemphasize social issues like abortion.
The Democratic candidate, David Domina, has been a prominent attorney in the fight against the Keystone XL pipeline. In theory, his best chance is to run against the Tea Party champion, Ben Sasse. But that assumes that Mr. Sasse is too radical for Nebraskans who tend to favor moderates like Bob Kerrey, Chuck Hagel, and Ben Nelson. Sasse may be radical, but he is also formidable.
We will know the results tonight.
PhD in History, Martin. A diss on Reagan-era religious politics or something.
He’s definitely not a philosopher, unless saying “Obamacare will be the end of America” counts as philosophy.
This guy sounds like a real piece of work.
I guess that’s proof that lots of schooling doesn’t always buy you common sense.
This is the kind of politician that we really have to worry about – the clever fascists. We’ve been fairly lucky up till now that most American fascists are buffoons.
We’ll see if he’s the real thing if he can keep bizarre utterances from leaping out of his mouth over the next few months.
Ben Sasse has impressive credentials.
What’s your point? “Tailgunner” Ted aka “Calgary” Ted Cruz has impressive credentials too. That doesn’t stop him from acting like a buffoon.
Looks like a trained historian who has a passion for evangelical religion/administration, so an anti-abortion extremist. No surprise there, standard issue religious wingnut. Appears to have lived in DC for a decade.
Apparently because of his ivy league resume and IQ test-like smarts, he was anointed as a rising conserva-star at an early age and ushered into wingnut welfare by Bushco, being given staff and consultant spots that seem to have nothing to with his area of graduate education–particularly healthcare and public health. Wonder how much of that was Bushco abortion policy? Not clear what department his professorship in Austin was in.
Basically the sort of resume that (when possessed by a Dem) results in spittle-flecked cries of “elitist DC insider!!”, but of course IOKIYAR. Never elected to any public office, but as an elite white male he guesses that starting at the US senate is appropriate…
Upon winning this open seat, he’ll quickly be crowned as the Repub anti-Obamacare “expert”, although his website makes no mention of what his “conservative” alternative would be. If one is going to have some sort of universal coverage while maintaining private insurance profit center/middlemen, then Obamacare is the only mechanism, and would be the “conservative” approach if our rightwing party wasn’t run by lunatics and imbeciles.
Which we can’t say this Sasse character is. But those tea party coaches who have followed him closely seem to think he’s one of them, and I’m certainly willing to believe them, ha-ha. As cruzy says, these are the truly dangerous types of American fascists, they have systematically presented themselves as acceptable to the mainstream academic institutions and have cleverly gotten their credibility tickets stamped at a variety of locations, mostly by eager patrons.
So another theocrat in secular clothing. This guy is planning on the WH someday, that seems pretty clear.