Shot in the Dark

Category: Campaign ’14

  • March Madness Speculation

    Because it’s never too early to start the campaign season. Former Sen. Norm Coleman’s announcement last week that he would forgo a challenge to incumbent Gov. Mark Dayton may be remembered in hindsight as the starting gun for the 2014 election cycle in Minnesota.  With Democrats holding all the offices of note, the only real…

  • Reap The Whirlwind

    The AP notes that red-state Democrats are looking at the Obama Administration’s gun-grabbing orgy, and nervously casting an eye to the ’14 election. They start with Montana Democrat Max Baucus: Back during the Clinton era, [Baucus] faced a choice: support an assault weapons ban urged by a president from his own party and risk angering…

  • Dumbing Down

    Last night on Twitter, I twote “Binders” is so Big Bird.” This morning on Hot Air, Ed points out that Mark Halperin – no conservative tool, he – points out the same thing at greater length; we’re under three weeks to the election, and Obama is still trying to pin his hopes on sophomoric “gotchas”: As Ed…

  • Chanting Points Memo: “Tergeted Jerbs”

    With much fanfare from the media and the DFL’s press-release bloggers (most of them), the Dayton Administration released its “jobs plan”. Call it “porkulus with a side of lefse“.  It’s a dumb plan – and there’s language in here that shows the DFL knows it (emphasis added): Saint Paul – Governor Mark Dayton and DFL…

  • Chanting Points Memo: Dayton’s New Racket

    Remember Governor Dayton’s first big initiative? No? That probably makes Governor Dayton plenty happy. Oh, it’s likely you remember the broad outlines; Governor Daytons’ first – and, until this week, only – real platform was to “reduce” the “deficit” by taxing the “rich”. Of course, the “deficit” was precisely the same as the one you…

  • Your Even-Handed Government At Work

    Joe Doakes from Como Park writes: At least the administration is even-handed and non-political in its internal communication with employees facing layoff when the government shuts down in a few weeks. No preaching here, just the facts. That’s a comfort. Joe supplied an email to DOT employees: From: *DOT_NoteMailer Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2011 1:15…

  • You Heard It Here First

    John McCormack on exactly how dark the Pawlenty horse is at The Weekly Standard…: Because Pawlenty has been less coy than other likely presidential contenders about whether he’ll run, he’s generated less interest while the press is concentrating on who’s in and who’s out. And because he sparked little enthusiasm when John McCain considered him…

  • Congratulations, Governor Dayton: Part II

    OK.  You’ve been sworn in. Now, let’s get down to business. You and your supporters – the unions and your family – ran a shameful, slimy campaign.  And had you not outspent Tom Emmer and the GOP by about 3:1 – using family money, and money expropriated from union dues-payers – and had the media…

  • Why Did Emmer Lose?

    The dust is finally settling.  The campaign is over.  We have a “governor”-elect. So what went wrong with the Emmer campaign? We’ll come back to that.  First, let’s talk about what went right.  Emmer ran a campaign he can be proud of, to the extent that he, personally, never stooped to the Dayton campaign’s level…