{"id":11950,"date":"2010-07-12T12:00:49","date_gmt":"2010-07-12T17:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=11950"},"modified":"2010-07-22T22:52:13","modified_gmt":"2010-07-23T03:52:13","slug":"chanting-points-memo-cue-captain-renault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=11950","title":{"rendered":"Chanting Points Memo: Cue Captain Renault"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s still a month until the primaries.\u00a0 Tom Emmer’s been crisscrossing Minnesota,\u00a0doing what he does best – meeting people.\u00a0 In his bio with Bill Salisbury in the PiPress<\/em>, he estimates he’s met 100,000 Minnesotans.\u00a0 I’d imagine that translates to 80,000 votes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And the DFL still has a solid month before they have their coronation for Mark Dayton.\u00a0 They are mired in an epic passion deficit, and (this has to be the most depressing part of all for the DFL rank and file) at the end of it all they have a Mark Dayton candidacy <\/em>to look forward to.<\/p>\n

And so the\u00a0DFL has their minions pecking away at Emmer, trying to make electoral mountains out of molehills (which explains the heavily-contrived furor over Emmer’s off-handed remarks about wages for tipped workers); without Tom Emmer to kick around, all Dayton, Margaret Anderson-Kelliher, Matt Entenza and Tom Horner (remember him?) have for material is each other.<\/p>\n

A few weeks ago, we talked about (and conclusivel<\/a>y shredded<\/a>) the DFL’s other <\/em>contrived controversy – the Dems’ harping on Emmer to release his plan for fixing the deficit (before they do it themselves, naturally).<\/p>\n

And like an old pair of birkenstocks, it’s baaack.\u00a0 Mark Dayton wants Emmer to cough up his plan.<\/p>\n

Dave Mindeman at mnpACT shocks the world<\/a> with a candid admission:<\/p>\n

I have to say that I am with Mark Dayton on this one.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Someone check the space-time continuum.<\/p>\n

The 2010 election for governor is too important to not start laying the cards on the table. We should be demanding some detailed options for balancing the next budget.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Demand away!<\/p>\n

But Emmer, being the underdog in this race, is smart enough to know that he gets one shot at getting through to the mass of Minnesota voters.\u00a0 It”ll be after the reality of a Mark Dayton candidacy <\/em>has sunk in.\u00a0 It’ll be when people outside the wonk class start thinking about this election.<\/p>\n

Dayton’s tax plan is certainly open to criticism. That’s fair. But to me, the criticism is never going to ring true unless alternatives are put out to the public.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The problem is that nobody cares if Emmer’s plan “rings true” right now, because it’ll be released to a roomful of pundits and party hacks.<\/p>\n

No – coughing up details right now is what those who are running behind do.\u00a0 Entenza – stuck in third and on electoral life support – came up with some “details” a few weeks ago –\u00a0something about green jobs and unicorns.\u00a0 It seems not to have lit his campaign on fire.<\/p>\n

And in perhaps the best symptom yet that the DFL endorsement remains the kiss of death, Kelliher is dipping a toe in:<\/p>\n

Margaret Anderson Kelliher is getting closer to some specifics. She laid out an outline in a presser today:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Governor I will make those earning more than $250,000 to pay their fair share. I will demand an end to sweetheart deals that shelter tax dollars overseas, and close foreign corporate tax loopholes. \u201cAs Governor I will fight waste, fraud and abuse against state government. I will make necessary budget reductions while protecting students from cuts in the classroom, senior citizens in nursing homes, and basic essential services for Minnesota\u2019s most vulnerable. \u201cAnd as Governor I will use temporary budget tools to transition our state to long-term economic stability.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Bonus question:\u00a0 Find any item in that list that pertains to anything but the government and its institutions.\u00a0 Jobs?\u00a0 Tax Burden?\u00a0 Regulation?\u00a0 Stick a fork in it, Kelliher.\u00a0 It’s over).<\/p>\n

Emmer is doing what\u00a0 he needs to do to have any hope of prevailing against the voters that matter<\/em> – the ones that don’ t write for newspapers or blogs – against a full-court DFL and media press in less than four months.<\/p>\n

The demand for “details”, today as a month ago, has nothing to do with informing the public, and everything\u00a0 to do with tactics in a race where the DFL knows it’s going to need a lot of public relations hocus pocus to cover a deadly drought of ideas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s still a month until the primaries.\u00a0 Tom Emmer’s been crisscrossing Minnesota,\u00a0doing what he does best – meeting people.\u00a0 In his bio with Bill Salisbury in the PiPress, he estimates he’s met 100,000 Minnesotans.\u00a0 I’d imagine that translates to 80,000 votes. And the DFL still has a solid month before they have their coronation for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[113],"class_list":["post-11950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chanting-points-memo","tag-emmer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11950"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12236,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11950\/revisions\/12236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}