SPT on Sen. Bill Nelson: If liberal label doesn't fit, we must elect?

The St. Peterburg Times seems to be trying to inoculate Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) against the charge that he is a liberal.

WASHINGTON — The punch is coming at him in slow-mo:

L ... I ... B ... E ... R ... A ... L.

Even in the earliest moments of his 2012 re-election campaign, Florida Sen. Bill Nelson can see the windup. Twice before Republicans tried to discredit him as a liberal. Twice they failed.

"Facts," Nelson says, "are stubborn things."

Huh.  Nelson must not be a liberal if Republicans failed to discredit him as one on two occasions.

The story goes on like that, even to the point of giving some detail about the two elections Nelson survived--one against the relatively bland Bill McCollum and the other against a self-destructing Katherine Harris.  Is it possible that, all other things being equal, Nelson could have been defeated by stronger candidates?

Could it be???  That the election isn't necessarily about labeling Nelson as a liberal?

Don't float that idea past the Times:

McCollum was perhaps too conservative for the time, and Harris ran a disastrous campaign. A more formidable opponent may be able to wield the liberal stick with more force.

Maybe Nelson will whack himself with that stick?  The story earlier admitted that Nelson reliably supports President Obama's legislative initiatives.  But, hey, maybe Obama is a moderate, too.

In 2009, Nelson ranked as the 39th-most liberal member of the Senate and the 60th-most conservative, according to a National Journal analysis. That puts him in the centrist camp. Longer-range studies show the same.

Interesting definition of "the centrist camp."  One would think that our government is not sharply polarized.  And maybe we'll forget that the Democrats had about 60 senators in 2009.  The cusp of the bottom third most liberal Democrats makes you a centrist.  Go figure.

A statewide poll released Thursday showed that 44 percent of voters think Nelson's views are "about right'' and 23 percent say he's too liberal. A plurality of voters, 46 percent, say Nelson generally shares Obama's views but his disapproval rating dropped 10 percentage points from August, suggesting criticism surrounding the president is not sticking.

That's the good news for Nelson.

The poll came from the folks at Quinnipiac.  Forty-three percent of those polled felt Nelson deserved another term in office.

"Sen. Bill Nelson's numbers are mixed. Only one in five voters is unhappy with his job performance, which indicates he hasn't stirred up strong opposition. But history shows that when only 43 percent of voters say an incumbent deserves another term, that incumbent sometimes doesn't get another term," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

quinnipiac.edu

That's the bad news for Nelson.

But the Times is interested in the positives while pushing the theme that Nelson isn't a liberal and therefore should be re-elected.

We get it, St. Petersburg Times.  You want the incumbent to win.

Nelson's fortunes do ride with Obama's.  If Obama tacks to the right then Nelson can profitably tag along.  If, on the other hand, Obama tacks little then Nelson's record of supporting Obama's legislative agenda will be easy for Republicans to pin on Nelson's lapel.  And that's a true message to the effect that Nelson's a liberal.  Not the most liberal.  But right there in the camp.