With a hat tip to the Guru, you should check out this piece on Oklahoma candidate for U.S. Senate, Andrew Rice. I don’t know if Oklahoma is ready to hire someone that hails from their capital city, or someone so young, or someone so liberal, but I sure hope so.
Rice is inoculated against some of the standard charges that Republicans make against Democrats in these red state contests. You can’t argue that Rice is soft on terrorism too effectively because his brother died in the World Trade Center collapse. You can’t argue that he isn’t Christian enough because he is a Harvard Divinity graduate who has dedicated his life to fighting religious extremism.
He’s only 34 years old. Inhofe can use his tender age against him, but Rice can turn that around. It won’t be easy for Rice in a presidential election year. It’s quite likely that Oklahomans will heavily support the GOP nominee. But, even that is not a guarantee.
I’m optimistic that Rice can use his superior energy and enthusiasm, not to mention intellect, to run laps around Inhofe on the campaign trail. I think his candidacy will benefit greatly if Obama is the nominee, as youthful change will be kind of a Democrat brand.