As I sat behind the stage staring at the back of President Barack Obama's head Tuesday evening, my thoughts centered not on the leader of the free world standing before me, but on the senator fighting for his political life who spoke minutes earlier.
Maybe U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold D-Wis., has just been getting overshadowed by Republican Ron Johnson's primary victory, but it feels like ages since we last got to see the fiery, not-apologizing-for-anything Feingold that made him a Wisconsin political staple. But Tuesday's Moving America Forward rally brought that Feingold back in a big way.
Of course, it's not particularly surprising that this Russ went off the radar for a bit. The polls hadn't been good, with Rasmussen putting him seven points behind Johnson in the race for Wisconsin's U.S. Senate seat. More bad news came later, as even a poll from liberal blog Daily Kos put him behind by double digits.
It's pretty clear Feingold is in trouble, and he has been acting like it lately. Even before the recent batch of bad polling numbers came out, the junior senator from Wisconsin had been doing his best to separate himself from President Barack Obama as best as he could. He had been avoiding appearances with Obama, particularly all of the president's prior visits to the Dairy State. And when your opponent is painting you as the lackey of a president currently suffering from middling approval ratings, political conventional wisdom would deem that a good strategy.
But that doesn't mean it was the right strategy for Feingold. His longstanding popularity in Wisconsin has been rooted in his knack for bucking political conventional wisdom. To see Feingold run away from Obama seemed out of character for him, and that was disappointing. What I wanted to see, and what I bet a lot of diehard Feingold fans wanted to see, was the senator sticking to the praise that he had lavished upon Obama since the 2008 election. I didn't want to see Feingold run from Obama merely because it was politically convenient. If he supported Obama—and everybody knew he supported and still supports Obama, that is something no amount of downplaying could hide–– he should stand by that support and stand by it proudly.
And Feingold did exactly that at Tuesday's rally. One could argue just how successful Obama was in motivating the youth vote—for a rally focused on college-aged voters, a lot of people seemed to be getting up there in years, and a lot of students were left frustrated once the gates to Library Mall were shuttered. But Feingold did exactly what he needed to do: He took a stand. He stated firmly, ""I call Barack Obama a friend,"" putting his foot down in what he firmly believed in as opposed to what is popular.
There is precedent for stands like this benefiting candidates in elections. In the 2002 Minnesota senate race between Paul Wellstone and Norm Coleman, Wellstone actually began to pull ahead of Coleman after steadfastly opposing the then popular Iraq War, only to have his life cut tragically short in a plane crash days before the election.
Hopefully Wisconsinites will be similarly impressed with Feingold's determination to stand beside Obama. Hopefully they will realize their state is represented by one of the few respectable public servants left in Congress. Hopefully, come Nov. 3 Feingold will still have a job.
But regardless of how that all turns out, it's good to have you back, Russ.
Todd Stevens is a senior majoring in history and psychology. Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com
