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Lincoln Chafee (on left) and Michael Bloomberg, Mayor New York City, during the campaign.

Now that the dust is clearing I thought I might take a look and see how some of those members of the oligarchy fared in the recent mid terms. Tonight I thought we might revisit Lincoln Chafee.

We last saw Chafee standing alone and independent against the odds trying to gain the Governorship of his home state, and the home state of his ancestors. Ex Senator Chafee’s father was Senator John Chafee of loving memory.

As it turns out he did remarkably well. Independents usually have the odds stacked against them. They lack the backing of the modern slick party machine and the funding that goes to their candidates. However the Chafee family, linked as it is to the Taft’s, are well known in Rhode Island. Lincoln Chaffee is a cousin to William Taft IV who featured in the previous post yesterday. And as the tree below shows they are hardly strangers to ruling this fiefdom. It only goes to show how close parts of the United States political community are to each other!

He managed to defeat both Frank Caprioca the Democrat candidate and John Robitaille the Republican. Oddly, Obama failed to endorse his own party’s candidate which ired Caprioca so much he was moved to insult his boss in public for this betrayal. “Obama” he shouted “can take his endorsement and really shove it.” It’s this roughness in American politics that so appeals to the outsider watching.

But why should Obama do such a thing? Well, he was simply repaying another oligarch’s kindness and returning a favour. Chafee had endorsed Obama’s bid for presidency and that it seems over-rode party loyalty. One actually feels for poor old Caprioca. Almost.

But Chafee has even won round his erstwhile party too. The Boston Globe, reporting Friday, says that Republicans are mending bridges like there is no tomorrow.

Clever guy Chafee.

Copyright David Macadam 2010