So here you go, DFLers. After three months of flinging poo at Emmer’s 20 year old careless driving conviction, at his utterly accurate statements on the cost of minimum wage law to both restauranteurs and lower-income food-service workers, and the free speech rights of corporations to combat the uncontested free speech rights of unions and plutocratic DFL supporters, we’re finally down to a real campaign here.
The astroturf campaign against Target really is emblematic of this campaign; like Target, Emmer is a home-grown guy whose mission is to bring people better stuff – bedding and appliances and groceries or government, respectively – for less money. Like Target, the DFL and its big-money supporters, the unions and the Dayton family, need to destroy the notion that a homegrown company or guy can do that without government’s explicit blessing.
And you, plural, the DFL establishment, need to destroy Emmer (and his supporters, from Target all the way down to the regular schmoes in the street who speak out in his favor), because at the end of the day you are all now married to…:
A candidate with only one message: Raise taxes: He (and, mostly, his supporters) gussy this up with talk of “fiscal responsibility” – but at the day the only responsibility it refers to is your “responsibility” to keep government fed, fat and happy.
A candidate who is lying about “The Rich”: If you’re in a two-income household with a successful auto mechanic and a nurse, or a cop and a store manager, or a computer programmer and a pharmacist, or a mid-level teacher and a project manager, or a successful salesman and an executive assistant, you may not think of yourself as “the rich” in the same sense as, say, Mark Dayton. But according to Mark Dayton’s plan, you are. You are the ripe sucks for his tax plan.
And to make matters worse, as we will explore in coming weeks, there is no way on earth taxing “the rich” – households making over $150,000 a year – will close the deficit; partly because there isn’t that much money in that pool, and partly because taxing that pool will drive down the revenue received. And so Dayton will, inevitably, have to drive down the definition of “rich”; in a few years, it’ll be households making $100K. And then $85K. You get the picture.
A candidate who is going to destroy Minnesota’s already-ailing business climate: Minnesota’s business tax rates are already hurting Minnesota business. Businesses have stayed here, more or less. But most of the big corporations, your Targets and Best Buys and 3Ms, have been building most of their actual production facilities outside Minnesota for decades; our tax rates have been a boon for Texas, Mississippi, Mexico, and the Dakotas. And many smaller business are on the bubble; they’re looking at this election and pondering moving to Texas, Arizona or the Dakotas if things get any worse than they are. You haven’t heard of most of these companies; they’re little operations that employ dozens, maybe a hundred or two. But those are jobs, especially outside the metro, that are slowly bleeding away and aren’t coming back anytime soon.
We’ll have more on this in the next week or so.
A candidate whose behavior has been, to say the least, erratic over the years: Mark Dayton has admitted to suffering from Depression. So did Winston Churchill.
Dayton has admitted to being an alcoholic. So were Ulysses S. Grant and George W. Bush.
Depression and alcoholism clearly don’t disqualify people from political office.
But the erratic behavior that accompany depression and addiction certainly need to be considered.
When one of history’s greatest terrorists threatened to bomb London (and followed through in spades), Winston Churchill didn’t shut down Parliament and flee to Kenwood. He stuck a cigar in his mouth and threw Hitler a rhetorical middle finger and fought, and won, the war.
When the Union cause got incredibly difficult, and the equation came down to trading horrific casualties for the wearing down of the enemy – a commander’s worst nightmare – Ulysses S. Grant didn’t relapse, throw his hands in the air, and walk away from the job. He gritted his teeth and won the Civil War.
So as Minnesota faces its biggest budget challenge in almost eighty years – maybe ever – can you honestly say you see that kind of response in Mark Dayton? In any facet of his thirty-odd year record as a dissolute playboy political hobbyist?
Is it fair to even bring up alchoholism and mental illness? Irrelevant; I’m not. I’m talking only of Dayton’s long history of just plain strange behavior. And since the DFL saw fit to make Tom Emmer’s two careless driving convictions from a generation ago into election fodder, it’s only fair that Dayton’s behavior be on the table as well. Of course, Emmer’s last problem was 20 years ago; he’s gone on to become a pillar of the community in every sense. What’s Dayton done?
What has Dayton done?
We’ll be talking about that for the next three months.
I stand by my prediction: after all of the Dayton family money is spent, and the unions have stomped and squealed, and all is said and done, Minnesota will atone for the madness of 1998 and 2008 and put Emmer into the Governor’s office by a four point margin.
Because I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it at least weekly until this election is tagged and bagged; when you meet Tom Emmer, even if you’re not fundamentally disposed to agree with him, you at least walk away liking the guy, and thinking he’s got something going on. When you meet Mark Dayton, you feel…just a little off.
Go ahead, DFL. Start defending the guy.
This oughtta be good.
Well, Mitch, I think that us conservatives know better by now. There won’t be any intermediate steps. The dims will figure that since they will go down anyway, they might as well get it all at once. The math challenged libs, still stuck on Keynesian economic models because they were too entrenched in humanities classes, still don’t get it. In fact, I dare say that even when it smacks them right in the mouth, they will still be in denial. Hell, we’re seeing evidence on a daily basis that their hallowed leaders have screwed the pooch, but they still cling to their propaganda.
They were interviewing Mad Mark before the primaries. He looked and sounded like he was on something.
Now, the drooling zombies HAVE to support him, if they are indeed stupid enough to vote their party. If he should somehow win, I can’t wait to see the lefty bloggers scurry like cockroaches when their taxes go up!
Go ahead, DFL. Start defending the guy.
And please, focus on telling us what you like about the guy and whatever qualities you’ve observed, other than he’s “not Emmer”. Don’t respond with, “yeah, but Emmer…”. You’ve been doing that for three months. Seriously, tell me what makes Mark Dayton your guy in this race. Tell me what you expect to see in his detailed plan to resolve the budget crisis.
“it’s only fair that Dayton’s behavior be on the table as well.”
Hopefully Mad Mark’s behavior will be exposed over, and over, and over again during the coming weeks. It’ll all be fair play if you ask me given the ABM crap.
I’m looking forward to Emmer calling Mad Mark out on any and every issue. Corner this empty suit often enough and you can be certain the pressure will make him come apart at the seams.
Mad Mark is a hollow shell; his depravity will soon come to light for all to see.
It’d have been a whole different campaign if Big MAK had prevailed. The delusional Dems have decided to send in their DEAR LEADER.
It was fun watching the Dems candidates’ commercials. Even my non-political, Democrat leaning neighbor noticed that they were all pandering to the teachers union. I wonder how/if Dayton will run from that perception.
I’m already having a blast with this.
I think the MOB should pitch in and send a bouquet of flowers to Hazeltine brave Sir Mark’s HQ.
We owe him big.
Bartender; a round of kombucha for the house!
Wonder if Keegans has Kombucha?
And please, focus
Knight Rider, you have just guaranteed a troll-free thread.
I know, jpa, but after yesterday’s 100+ thread that consisted of four comments actually related to the original post and another 82% that were ad hominem attacks and counter-attacks I thought it might be refreshing.
“When the Union cause got incredibly difficult, and the equation came down to trading horrific casualties for the wearing down of the enemy – a commander’s worst nightmare – Ulysses S. Grant didn’t relapse, throw his hands in the air, and walk away from the job.”
True. But that’s a fair description of what William Tecumseh Sherman did…
JPA, you called my friend NW a Hasselhoff? So much for that troll free thread! :^) (enjoy your life below da bridge!)
Don’t get cocky. If you think of empty suits, are there any more empty than our junior senator?
I think Mark Dayton, or at least his message is a breath of fresh air. He’s coming right out and telling us what he wants to do.
DFL 2000: “Our quality of life is precious and we must pay for it with higher taxes.”
DFL 2010: “We must tax the rich, It’s for the children.”
DFL 2020: “Your money or your life.”
We can see where this is going.
I an REALLY, REALLY looking forward to the inevitable Youtube video of this trust fund imbecile raving, drooling and twitching on some Smallville platform. Because we certainly won’t see it on WCCO.
http://factcheck.org/playersguide2010/
Dog Gone’s link goes to a “cash attack” page listing major political donors this election cycle.
Factcheck.org’s “cash attack” page is funded by the liberal Carnegie Foundation.
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/funderprofile.asp?fndid=5266&category=78
Getting my oil changed today so held my nose and read the Mpls Star-Tribune they had in the waiting room. The Mpls paper is already pushing Horner as an alternative for Emmer voters. You can tell it was written before we knew who the DFL candidate was (they don’t write editorials at 2 AM in the morning), so this was a canned reaction to try to draw Emmer voters to Horner.
How’s this for irony. Dayton picked Pretner-Solon as his running mate to get the NE vote…it worked! Therefore the heavy DFL Iron Range-Duluth may have cost the Democrats the governors office (as Big MAK may have won in November).
Pingback: And So It’s Dayton | Stop David Bly and Kevin Dahle
Mitch said: “households making over $150,000 a year”
Mitch also said: “a cop and a store manager”
In Minnesota? Maybe if the store manager’s a call girl on the side. And the cop’s taking graft.
The DFL chooses the congenital idiot trust-fund baby to run for governor. Big surprise. The next couple of months are going to be fun.
OK, this is simply not fair- my comments are being held in the moderation queue (ostensibly due to past Tibetan Buddhist-related spam) and this “Dog Gone” spam-bot is free to single-link away with wild abandon.
Today, “FactCheck Cash Attack“, tomorrow: “Obama asks Mothers to go back to School” . . . *sigh*
So, female store managers in the Midwest aren’t call girls? And the cops there don’t take graft?
You should get out more, Angry Clown.
Kermit, Dayton realizes that without his family money he’d be Jerry Lundegaard From the Fargo movie. Underneath the money that is what he is, and he knows it. That’s why he is depressed.
Winning the governorship ain’t gonna fix that. If he wins he’ll be hitting the bottle hard within a month of being inaugurated.
Emmer is Harve Presnell.
“a cop and a store manager”
AC, he also seems to think N/A beer is a good way to get drunk, so what the hell. Apparently he’s letting swiftee make his arguments now.
I am one who is going to refuse to accept that Dayton’s mental illness is “irrelevant.”
I question whether the voting public should take Dayton’s admission of suffering from “mild depression” at face value. The need to independently verify the diagnosis stems from personal experience dealing with those with mental illness. Believe it or not, many folks don’t fully divulge their history when asked in a medical setting. They hold back due to the stigma.
It is Dayton himself that admitted that he was trying to get out in front of the story before an opponent could use it. Letting a pol define a controversial issue, when the pol himself has something to lose, seems to me to be something the press rarely does – and the press has swallowed it hook, line and sinker.
It is telling that Dayton has admitted to alcoholism. Those with mental illness often self-medicate with alcohol and stop taking their meds.
I’m telling you, his mental illness is relevant to this campaign just as it would be if Dick Chaney decided to run for President and questions were raised about his cardiac problems.
I’ll end this by paraphrasing Dr Frank Farley, Professor of Psychology, Temple University. When asked to evaluate Dayton’s fitness for office by MPR’s Keri Miller he replied, “If it is mild depression, that is one thing. But if it is Bipolar Disorder then that may be something else.”
Buddhapatriot-
Tibetan Buddists are the worst. They are like those Catholics that decorate the walls of their houses with pictures of Jesus with a burning heart. With swords stuck through it.
Please make the effort to be more normal!