When Dave Schultz at Hamline University calls it quits on a “DFL-Lite campaign like Tom Horner…
It looked all so promising only two weeks ago. Momentum and buzz suggested Tom Horner was gaining ground and he had a real chance to be governor. Polls showed strong gains, he was ahead of where Jesse Ventura was in 1998 at this time, and rumor had it he was racking in piles of money. Horner, a former public relations person, also knew how to package his statements for the media. It all looked so good.
…then you know it’s time to stick a fork in it.
Schultz, unlike me, thought that Horner may have had a shot at it – but then, he does twig to the real key fact; Horner is not Jesse Ventura:
Here is the horn(er) of the dilemma. Horner needs media attention to get his message out. He can only do that with money. He can only raise money if he lets people know he is running and what his message is, however he needs money to do that. Horner is trapped in a cycle and he may not be able to get out of it.
But not being Jesse and not having money is only part of the problem. MN’s flirtation with third party politics runs in cycles. Third party candidates do well when the state is economically doing very well or very badly and there is high disenchantment with the major parties. Think Floyd Olson (Farmer-Labor Party elected during prohibition) and Ventura during the flush times of the 90s.
It’s neither bad enough that people are that desperate, nor good enough that people are that frivolous.
Hey, you may enjoy this. Turns out that Hawaii native Barack Obama held a rally in ultra-liberal Madison Wisconsin. Only white folk showed up. Why are Obama’s supporters racist?
http://www.news.wisc.edu/slideshows/33/slides/245/
http://althouse.blogspot.com/2010/09/where-are-all-news-media-photographs-of.html
Chuck’s pissed. He wanted black people to show up so he could go with the “got no job” line.
“Earsall” tries and fails to emulate Angryclown.
An obscure reference of an obscure poster on an obscure blog. The Trifecta!
Angryclown is only “obscure” if you started reading in the past month.
The blog? Depends, I guess.
Now Obama is white folks?
He’ll be out of a job in 2012 anyhow.
You also have to remember Jesse ran at least as conservative a race as his Republican challenger Norm Coleman.
You also have to remember Jesse ran at least as conservative a race as his Republican challenger Norm Coleman.
As I recall when he ran for governor, when debating education Ventura promised to erase the word “voucher” from our voculary and when debating on the Iron Range said that he was the only candidate in favor of repealing NAFTA (he later did a 180 on trade when he was elected governor). As bad as Coleman was on spending and industrial policy, he at least had the virtue of supporting school choice and free trade (even when he was DFLer).
Hey “Earsall”. If you’re going to use someone’s real name as a pseudonym, at least have the courtesy to spell it correctly, jackass.
I think another part that helped Jesse get elected was that he was anti-stadium. Where Norm had gone to great lengths to get a new stadium built in his city.
Jesse was able to get lots of free press with some large rallies and had some very good ads in the last few weeks to build the momentum needed to win. Horner does not have the personality to draw large crowds or to excite crowds to have them build the moment he needs. As Mitch called it a week or so back Horner has peaked.