Good News Gop: Barbara Boxer Is Beatable In 2010

At last some good news for the GOP: Uber-liberal California Senator Barbara Boxer is shaping up to be surprisingly vulnerable in 2010.

Never wildly popular, the recent December, 2008 Survey USA poll confirms Boxer's longtime inability to inspire the electorate as a problem solver. The junior Senator from California, Barbara Boxer, today has a net job approval of Minus 1, with a 44% approval and 45% disapproval rating. This is a dramatic drop from the February, 2008 poll which had Boxer at plus 19 in the Golden State. Her Senate colleague--the reasonably moderate-liberal Diane Feinstein--by comparison has a 49% approval rating, a 43% disapproval rating, and a Net Job Approval of Plus 6.

Both women were first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992. Feinstein, 76, is currently contemplating a long desired, late career run for Governor, in 2010, to replace the term-limited terminator, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Her Senate seat is not up until 2012.

Boxer, however, despite her two re-elections in 1998 and 2004, has multiple factors working against her. Part of her problem is that she will be 76 years old at the end of her 4th term. She may have the experience of a veteran, but she has been unable to move beyond her easily telegraphed moves, and offers nothing new and hopeful for California voters on such issues as social security/Medicare entitlement reform, abortion, domestic energy development, 21st-century economic growth, border security or national security.

Barbara Boxer loves a fight. The problem is she is not fighting for all Californians, or for a unified, stronger America. She fights instead for herself, her ideology, and her own limited agenda:

1. Entitlement Reform

Boxer is an ideological voice against any serious reform of the social security Ponzi scheme that takes workers money, earns no interest on that money, and is then spent away. There is no social security "lock box". There is nothing there.

She resists conversation, compromise, and the clear consensus that younger and minority workers are the victims of the Social Security Ponzi scheme.

2. Abortion

Boxer is the leading radical in Washington on abortion. She has proposed the Freedom of Choice Act, a radical piece of legislation, and has worked hard to deny any thoughtful limitations on partial birth abortion.

Many Californians are socially somewhat libertarian and in the broad, mainstream middle -- respecting liberty for women but also the life of unborn babies with heartbeats who are viable in the 9th month of pregnancy. Increasingly, voters do not appreciate the repeated use of the abortion issue by Boxer as her signature political weapon to divide and disunify.

3. Energy Independence

Boxer has been a visceral and ideological opponent of such 21st century energy independence opportunities as safe, clean, nuclear power. She rejects sophisticated new drilling techniques to explore and extract oil at steep angles, respecting the environmental dignity of the land or oceans. Solar and wind companies offer hope, but they will not produce anywhere near the amount of energy we need to keep the lights and computers on, and the famous California car culture moving, in the next decade.

Boxer has become insulated from new ideas, and ineffective at offering domestic solutions to our dependence on Middle East oil, and she has purposefully turned the broadly popular concept of environmentalism in California into a partisan wedge issue.

4. Economy

Ask small business women and men about Boxerís inability and unwillingness to promote California trade, and investment, opportunities for entrepreneurs, families and workers. She has been AWOL or opposed to opening up new markets for Californiaís small manufacturers and producers. She knows only how to regulate, tax, and oppose new ideas to incentivize innovation. She is not constuctive, forward-thinking, or promotive of economic growth.

5. Immigration

Boxer has not been a problem solver on this issue, either. She has worked against strong border control measures, against preventing fraud by aliens seeking amnesty and chain migration, and she opposed limitations on the nefarious policy of sanctuary cities for illegal aliens, including criminals. Boxer opposed making English the official language of our nation -- a policy which would assist legal immigrants to assimilate and thrive in the long run.

6. National Security

Perhaps Boxer's weakest performance has been in the area of American foreign policy.

For example, on the issue of our time, Boxer repeatedly voted against research and development on missile defense for the United States and our allies, like Israel.

Interestingly, Boxer's first announced GOP opponent (she probably will not have a serious Democrat primary challenger) Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine), knows something about this issue. A retired Army National Guard (Res.) Lieutenant Colonel, DeVore was an original advisor to Rep. Duncan Hunter in the 1980's in the promotion of the Arrow anti-tactical ballistic missile. With funding by the U.S., which received in return critical scientific field test data from Israel, the allies worked together to create programs ever more urgently required for missile defense against the increasingly dangerous Iran and her proxies Hezbollah and Hamas.

Israel will be an issue in 2010. DeVore issued a strong statement in support of the Israeli incursion in Gaza, on January 4th. Boxer then rushed out a statement the next day. However, she backdated her statement on her website to December 31, 2008.

Boxer also suffered an embarrassing episode in late 2006 when she gave and then had to rescind an award to an official of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).

Boxer lacks vision and punch. Her legacy will be one of longtime ignorance about the rise of radical Islam, and the defenses the United States and our ally Israel would need.

7. Politics

Always partisan, Boxer recently voted to strip Independent Senator Joseph Lieberman of his committee chairmanship. 42 fellow Democrats disagreed with her, including Senator Diane Feinstein, as well as Barack Obama.

She famously worked to reject the 2004 Presidential election certified results from Ohio.

Boxer also picked a famous fight over the fact that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had no children at risk of being called to war. It was a wild swing, a petty ploy. Also, wrongheaded, since we have an all-volunteer army and no one is conscripted into military service.

Boxer is a hard-edged partisan, and a throwback to 1970's-era activism in the Bay Area. She is not an appealing politician. Not a unifier, not positive, not visionary, not statesmanlike.

She will face a tough battle against an articulate, younger, pro-growth, pro-energy, and pro-national security GOP candidate. DeVore has a strong political base in Orange County, and will look to consolidate his statewide Republican support at the state GOP convention in February.

Barbara Boxer is not considered one of the brighter lights of American politics. That did not, however, prevent her from writing a novel. Her 2005 book, A Time to Run, was excoriated for its bad writing, bad grammar, cliches, and banal coverage of the political scene.

Her novel did not sell very well. Increasingly, neither is Senator Boxer.