Doug Grow - Kingmaker?- Strib

Doug Grow - Kingmaker?- Strib columnist Doug Grow had this to say about the gubernatorial race - especially the Roger Moe stock car:

"...in a race that features DFLer Roger Moe, Republican Tim Pawlenty, the Independence Party's Tim Penny and the Green Party's Ken Pentel, one of the key issues is whose supporters still will be awake when the polls open in November."

Well, we know Moe is a snoozer. We know Tim Penny has an affable-enough public persona, but that he's a wonk who comes across with all the common-man bonhomie of a political science teachers' assistant. Ken Pentel...words fail me.

But Tim Pawlenty - as I've noted in this space on a few previous occasions - is perhaps the best public speaker in Minnesota politics today. He's sharp, has a quick wit, delivers well in front of a crowd of two to two thousand, is unflappable under pressure, can field the bad hops with style. I have a huge regard for good public speakers - Dad taught speech for 40 years, I worked in radio, and I'm a huge Churchill disciple - and Tim Pawlenty has the Berg Seal of Oratorical Approval.

Now - what's Grow doing with a paragraph like that above?

We know Roger Moe is a stiff in front of a crowd. Him posing with a stock car makes the tank-borne Michael Dukakis look pretty spontaneous and natural. Whatever his qualifications - and I'll debate those with anyone, too - Moe is a resounding dud at presenting himself.

Grow wants to do whatever he can to deliver the election to the DFL, without TOO obviously violating whatever pass for journalistic ethics for
op-ed hacks these days. So rather than make Moe something he's not, and can't be - he brings everyone down to Moe's level. Moe's a snoozer - so let's spin EVERYONE as a snoozer, too!

The real story is between the lines.