Kristi Noem Rises

If Kristi Noem makes the big time, I'll remember three moments that tipped me off. One, and perhaps the most significant, was in the Aberdeen Target store. On the way out, a woman was pushing a cart with, I think, three kids in tow. It might have been four. She turned to me and asked: "are you Dr. Blanchard?"

After I confessed, she told me that she had been in my American Government class many years before. "I wasn't interested in politics back then," she said, and indicated that she hadn't done so well in my course. She is interested in politics now. She told me that she was hosting a gathering for Kristi Noem. I believe she said it was in Britton. If so, it did the trick. Noem carried Marshall County 45% to Nelson's 37%.

The second moment was when William Kristol mentioned Noem favorably on Fox Special Report. That meant that Noem is interesting to the conservative leadership outside the state. The third occurred tonight, when I read a praise of Noem's candidacy on Powerline. Granted, John Hinderaker is a native South Dakotan, and so has personal reasons for his interest. Noem, he notes, "is a farmer and rancher who also runs a hunting operation and a restaurant, all just a few miles from my home town." But Powerline is a major conservative blog and his attention might matter.

Money is going to pour into South Dakota from both sides. As I have pointed out several times, Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin is well below fifty percent in every poll I have seen. That usually spells trouble for an incumbent. Unless she falls very low in the polls, national money will be available to support her. Likewise, Noem will be able to compete as she gains national attention.

If I was working for the HS campaign, I would certainly view Noem as the most dangerous opponent. The mere fact that she is a she will neutralize a powerful advantage Herseth-Sandlin has enjoyed in previous elections. Our at-large Congresswoman also has to repair a very weak state party. They couldn't even come up with a candidate to run against John Thune. The more liberal core of the state Democratic Party is so dissatisfied with HS that they brief attempted to run a primary challenger against her. By contrast, the Republican Party is going to unite enthusiastically behind Kristi Noem.

If you need a fourth indication that Kristi Noem is a serious contender, consider what my esteemed Keloland Colleague and friend Cory Heidelberger has to say about her.

I just heard SDPB's Dakota Digest interview with U.S. House candidate Kristi Noem. She really is South Dakota's Sarah Palin: all slogans and imagery, all anti-intellectualism, no substance…

Kristi, there really are experiences other than your own. Those diverse experiences are as valid and valuable as your own. A professor, a soldier, a lawyer, a meatpacker, and an artist may be just as qualified to participate in government as you. To say that your particular class is better qualified for elected office than other exposes both arrogance and insecurity (remind you of any former Alaska governors yet?).

The thing is, this works both ways. Of course the experiences of a ranch wife and entrepreneur aren't necessarily more valid than those of a graduate of Georgetown University in Washington D.C., but they might be at least as valid. A lot of folks in South Dakota who couldn't afford to go to off to college in D.C. may think that they have just as much right to have a say in government as those who did. They may suspect, rightly or wrongly, that people like Cory are contemptuous of them. Now they have a champion.

I'll have to ask my friend the Election Shaman about it, but just right now Kristi Noem looks like the coming thing.

Comments

[Stan Gibilisco]

"Of course the experiences of a ranch wife and entrepreneur aren't necessarily more valid than those of a graduate of Georgetown University in Washington D.C. ..."

They're more valid to me.

[William]

As I believe they will be to a majority of the voters in Novemeber, Stan!

[Donald Pay]

I agree with Cory. She's an insecure actress, mouthing the words of a Texas-based political consultant. Not that Herseth Sandlin is much different, mind you. What an awful choice!

[Connie]

Amen to both the above posts! The worth of a political candidate is not determined by her pedigree (name or education); it is determined by whether that candidate deems her constituents as worthy of her/his time and personal attention, worthy of meeting face to face, worthy of debates, worthy of truly listening to, etc. IMO the actions of Herseth-Sandlin in the last year have shown exactly what she thinks of us, the average South Dakotans, whom she is supposed to represent. She has not deemed us worthy of her personal attention. Well, this works both ways -- we do not deem her worthy of our personal votes!

[caheidelberger]

I cannot afford to be contemptuous of folks whose life experience is not centered around education and academia. My dad did the Army, trade school, and then work, work, work: Morrell's, construction, painting, plastic factory, and running his own business. My brother has no higher ed and is busting his chops to help raise four kids.

I won't denigrate their value as citizens. What rankles me is when a major public figure portrays sends the not-so-subtle message that going to a big university out of state and aspiring to knowledge work (yes, it is work) is a lesser calling. Noem can say that her campaign message is that she's challenging SHS specifically and not college education in general... but that distinction is too easily lost on our kids, who are watching us adults closely and trying to figure out how to fit into our society. Kids need to understand they are all "real Americans" whether they go into business, housepainting, teaching, construction, or preaching, or whether they go to Georgetown, Northern, Lake Area, or drop out in grade 11 (though you have some hard work ahead if you do the latter).

[William]

It would be difficult to describe William F. Buckley as "anti-education" but one of his more famous quotations is:

"I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.
William F. Buckley, Jr."

Sometimes intellectual pursuits become divorced from the values of common sense, one can certainly be "book smart" (or smart in a particular area of expertise) and still be deficient in "smarts".

Many of us might consider our current President to be a pretty good example of this.

[BillW]

I think across the country the message is being sent that any politician with a background in reality - one where real people live their live - is superior to a lawyer from an elite east coast school. The Ivy League/Georgetown lawyers have been running the country for better than three decades and the results are in.

Note that for all of my haranguing with the likes of Donald, the reality is that there is not much difference between a Yale educated elitist like Bush2 and a Dartmouth educated elitist like Obama or another Yale educated elitist like Clinton or a Yale educated elitist like Bush1. When the image and fluff are blaown away, their economic policies and even their social policies are not much different. For 26 of the last 30 years the Treasury Secretary has come from the Ivy League ... and here we are. Hard to imagine a Georgetown lawyer has the solution - and the fact that Palin or Noem are largely ignorant of the elite acedemic economic theories is a big point in their favor.

Herseth-Sandlin suffers from the fact that she is cast from the same mold as just about everyone else in Washington on either side of the aisle, and the voters won't have any more of it.

Your friend from Keloland still doesn't get it. The intellectual snobs sneering at Sarah Palin - or Kristi Noem - for their lack of understanding of economic, social and political theories flwoing from the elite academic institutions only helps their reputation with the American people - and makes the sneerers look as out of touch as they truly are.

[Miranda]

Cory: Is there a particular comment, speech or advertisement of Noem's that you're referring to?

[Miranda]

I read through the article you linked to and I don't see Noem saying anything against Harvard or Yale. One supporter did, but I know you know better than to say that everything supporters say necessarily reflect the views of a candidate. So there must be something I'm missing.

[Donald Pay]

This education thing is interesting. Several generations ago wealth and class were much bigger factors in being accepted at elite schools. Today elite schools are looking for merit whatever the social class the student come from. They are even determining merit based on less class-based rubrics. Lots of South Dakota kids are going to Ivies and Georgetown and other elite schools not because they are rich, but because they get a good education in the K-12 system and deserve to go to an elite school.

[Zander]

Why do people always attack people who are actually doing something? Sitting around complaining about people who are getting involved in politics is funny from people who are sitting around doing nothing...but complaining. Get involved already yourself.

[KB]

Cory: I was very careful in my language. I did not accuse you of being contemptuous of Noem or Noem voters, I just suggested that they might think you were.

I could have pointed out that they have more than a little reason to be suspicious. You insist on using the term "teabagger" to refer to people who are part of the Tea Party movement. Yeah, I know Gordon Howie embraced the term, but since when did you look to Howie as an authority? Since when did Howie get leave to speak for the many citizens who bring their lawn chairs out to the public parks and listen to speeches?

"Teabagger" is, anatomically speaking, inches away from "cocksucker". Might a Noem voter in Britton reasonably suspect that that term implies contempt for her and pretty much everyone she knows?

Moreover, people whose lives are encompassed by state and county boundaries and by more traditional views of God and Country have reason to think that the Left in general is contemptuous of them. There is President Obama's infamous statement about people who cling to guns and religion. That's how he talked when he thought that only a bunch of San Francisco leftist could hear him. And there is the map of America posted on the web just after the 2004 election, with the term "Jesusland" over pretty much all the middle. That wasn't a compliment, Cory.

It is reasonable to ask a candidate for office about his or her background. Representative Herseth-Sandlin proudly posts her credentials on her website. Is she saying that other people's background is less worthy of credit? Of course not. Ms. Noem defends her own background. Can you show that she did more, or was your interpretation a bit jaundiced?

I am all for education and I applaud Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin for getting a good one. I think she is right to list her education as something she brings to the office. Maybe it's also a good idea to have a few Kristi Noem's in Congress as well.

[Stan Gibilisco]

As someone educated as a theoretical mathematician and who then (by choice) entered the world of grime and grit, of bills and tax returns, of bachelor pads and old jalopies, I can see contempt flowing in both directions. However, I think that when "ordinary folks" sense contempt from the elite, more anger arises in the target individuals than in the reverse case.

When a Ph.D. senses derision coming from a farmer, the good doctor will likely laugh and forget it; after all, how can a sweaty rube know anything significant? When the farmer senses derision coming from the Ph.D., the farmer will (I suspect) simmer longer, maybe reminding the doctor that the Brussels sprouts on her plate came from the dirt in his field.

The farmer can survive without the Ph.D.

The Ph.D. would starve without the farmer.

I think we should all dial down our contempt-o-matics a few notches, and make our nation a better place.

People exist who deserve contempt from every American: Those who want to murder the whole lot of us, for example.

I'll channel my anger into the November election!

[KB]

Stan: Thanks for the shrewd comment. To be sure, higher education is possible only in an advanced and prosperous civilization. I would add that it is only possible in a civilization that has been exposed to the tradition of philosophy. I would also add, as Aristotle says, that the complete human community does not exist for the sake of mere survival. It exists for the sake of the good life. Let us not be confused here. Anyone with a radio, let alone a tv and internet connection, is exposed to higher civilization. But it is part of the higher awareness to appreciate the farmer. Socrates, to judge by Xenophon's dialogues, was as interested in farming as he was in everything else.

[Lynn]

Cory on his blog stated that a person posting on his site was "denigrating opponents by nickname." Cory has no leg to stand on saying this for the exact reason that KB stated above, his constant use of the negative when referring to people attending Tea Party rallies, and his continued put-downs of people in the 9.12 groups or the Tea Party movement or conservatives in general. You can disagree with a person or philosophy but still treat that person/philosophy with respect and decency, and I with only one year of college education still realize this.

[Jusy]

I am having concerns about the number of traffic tickets Ms. Noem has received, but mostly, her lack of appearances in court. I know this seems minor, but in the scheme of things,all laws should be obeyed, no matter how minor they seem. Is this a taste of how Ms. Noem really regards the law. Is Ms. Noem above the law, any law?

[Jusy]

I am having concerns about the number of traffic tickets Ms. Noem has received, but mostly, her lack of appearances in court. I know this seems minor, but in the scheme of things,all laws should be obeyed, no matter how minor they seem. Is this a taste of how Ms. Noem really regards the law. Is Ms. Noem above the law, any law?

[Dwight]

Its unbelievable to me that the people of South Dakota, many of who often complain about "the crooks in Washington" would willingly vote in a bonefide criminal. How can we a person to create laws when they obviously have no regard for the law. It has nothing to do with the speeding tickets, we all have those. Its the fact that she didn't show up for court multiple times!! She thinks she is above the law. What do you all think she is going to do in Washington. Herseth is a good, conservative South Dakotan. We need to keep her representing us.