In Arkansas, Arkansas News columnist John Brummett asks: “Can Blanche Go Home Again?” The New York Times dispatched a reporter last week to Helena-West Helena, the hometown of U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln where the local white people might offer a pretty good gauge of broader attitudes by our state’s decisive rural conservatives…. They were mad at Lincoln from the right for being too liberal, even as liberals nationwide ante up to Bill Halter’s campaign out of anger at her for being too conservative.  That old Arkansas Democratic finesse, by which people named Clinton and Pryor (and Lincoln) finely balance the liberal interests of their national party with the rural conservatism of their constituency, has blown up on Lincoln.  It’s because of Barack Obama, his name, his image, his culture, his other thing. It’s because of the bank bailout, the auto bailout, the stimulus, the fear of government health care, a deficit now nearly $2 trillion.