This Week's Women in Politics Profile: Blanche Lincoln

Blanche Lincoln, United States Senator, from the State of Arkansas. I would have thought that Hillary Clinton would have been the one, but Blanche Lincoln did it at the age of 38, in 1998.
This Woman is far off the radar when it comes to National politics, but that doesn't mean much, when you consider she is one of only 16 women currently serving in the United States Senate.
She is one of 16 in an exclusive club of one hundred. By my view, she is one of the 16 elected most powerful and influential Women in United States Government, and that can't be argued.

So who is she, and how did she get there?
According to the girls and their search of Wikipedia, Blanche (Lambert) Lincoln was born and raised in Arkansas, and is a product of their fine public school system, which has consistently ranked in the high 40s out of the fifty states, depending on whose survey you read. Blanche Lambert attended Randolph Macon Women's College in Lynchburg Virginia and graduated in 1982. After that she studied Law at the University of Arkansas, while working for Arkansas 1st district Congressman Bill Alexander from 1982 to 1984.


In 1992, Blanche ran against Alexander and defeated him in the primary. She stayed in the House for two terms, leaving at the beginning of 1997 because she was pregnant.
In 1998 she ran for the Senate Seat of retiring Dale Bumpers and won 55-42. She was only 38 when she took office, and was the youngest woman ever elected to the United States Senate. Blanche Lincoln calls herself a moderate or centrist, and concentrates on farm or rural issues, which is logical considering the population of her State.

On Important Conservative Issues, she has voted to pass the partial birth Abortion Ban, and on gun control, she voted to ban lawsuits against gun makers and distributors, but also voted for the federal ban on assault weapons. Senator Lincoln was in a minority that supported CAFTA and she is opposed to some protectionists measures, but there aren't any mentioned.

I read that some political pundits thought she was viable as a VP choice for John Kerry in 2004, and some more are mentioning her now for Obama. Then I see on her home page that she supports Hillary Clinton. Okay, so any thing's possible, but after reading her resume, I don't think that Blanche Lincoln is a viable VP candidate. She's done great as a Senator from a small State, but I get a feel that while she's really in touch with the people of her state, I think she might be in over her head as a national leader. So anybody touting her as a VP possibility is more than likely throwing out names to see who strikes a chord. She seems like a hard working, well intention United States Senator, but could she be President? Maybe in another 4 or 8 years.

Next Week: The Girls are researching Condoleeza Rice. I'm going to try alternating Republican and Democratic Women of stature.