Yes. If Dave tries to run against Enzi, he’d probably lose, barring any slip-up by Enzi between now and then.
If Enzi were to lose to Cheney, then Dave would probably jump in the race, because only a few debates aired on public TV or on radio stations across the state will show who knows their buttocks from a warm rock on any sunny day in Wyoming. Dave would walk away with any debate.
Cheney might have chops in international affairs, but people in Wyoming, by and large, don’t give a rat’s rear end about foreign affairs just now. Wyomingites have sent enough of their young people off to wars for the neo-con’s causes that they’re tired of it. What’s on people’s mind right now is Obama’s “war on coal” and the ruinous increase in electric rates it would cause.
I’m a retired EE, I know a little bit about power generation, tariffs and power distribution, and when I’ve heard Dave speak on the subject, I’ve been blown away with his competence and articulation of actual facts. Get into a discussion of windmills vs. coal plants in Wyoming, and you will quickly find out that Dave Freudenthal knows his stuff. Get into a discussion of hunting, wildlife management, wolf management and so on - and you quickly find out that Dave knows his stuff. Get into a discussion of business in the state, gas/coal/oil receipts, farm prices, cattle numbers... and you find out Dave knows his stuff.
I’m being quite serious here. I’d long since written off most politicians of both parties as dumb, inbred Ivy League grifters when we moved to Wyoming. The first time I heard Dave on a local AM radio show, I was impressed. He made himself available once a month for an *hour* on a local radio station, and he made time to talk on lots of local AM radio stations in Wyoming. People could call in and talk directly to the governor of the state, on the air. They got *answers* to their questions. It is retail politics at its finest, and Dave knows the facts cold, so he can do it.
Cheney would be utterly wiped out by Dave Freudenthal. Just utterly destroyed.
You have to wonder just what is going through that woman's head. Does she honestly thing that she can breeze into the state and spout that "My heart has always been in Wyoming" crap and expect people to look at her like a long lost relative? Is she looking at a senate seat as an extension of her punditry and doesn't think she'll have to actually work at the nation's business? Or has she just been in DC so long she's completely lost touch with the rest of the planet? I'm in central Nebraska and I doubt that the folks here are a whole lot different than the average Wyoming resident, and everyone thinks "If she tried that stunt here she'd be laughed out of the state". And our senator is not only retiring but is a shade less conservative than Enzi is.