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<\/p>\nI have this friend; let’s call her “Lydia”. \u00a0“Literal Lydia”, we called her in high school. \u00a0She was a little anal-retentive. \u00a0She sorted her sock drawer by thickness. \u00a0 She reportedly brushed her teeth before and after giving a talk in speech class. \u00a0She pronounced the “g” in words like “Knowing” and “Sailing” and “Talking”; “if it’s in writing, that’s how it’s supposed to be”, she always said.<\/p>\n
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Back when we were filling out our high school yearbooks, I made the mistake of writing “Thanks a Million!” to one of our other classmates. \u00a0She saw my yearbook, and looked at me. \u00a0“You neither said nor wrote thank you a million times! \u00a0You are a liar<\/em>!”<\/p>\n “But it’s just a figure of spee…” I started to try to explain.<\/p>\n “What’s in writing is the <\/em>only reality<\/em>!” she bellowed.<\/p>\n A few years later – ten, to be exact, since I long since learned one must be exact when talking about, to, or in reference to Literal Lydia – I called her to tell her that my oldest had been born.<\/p>\n “What’s the name?”, Lydia asked.<\/p>\n “Bun [*]”, I responded.<\/p>\n “Did you file a birth certificate yet?” Lydia demanded.<\/p>\n “Well, not yet…”<\/p>\n “Then she has no name<\/em>!”, Lydia bellowed. \u00a0“Because the written word is the only reality there is!”<\/em><\/p>\n Lydia worked as an actualry for about ten years after college, but she got fired for harshing the other actuaries’ mellow.<\/p>\n She might be a liberal blogger today.<\/p>\n ———-<\/p>\n You’re running for governor.<\/p>\n You’re facing an opponent who can outspend you 3-1 just out of his own personal checkbook, who can finance a campaign by unloading a Renoir or two for more money than you will ever make in your life, your spouse’s life, and your kids’ lives. \u00a0Your opponent’s campaign is backstopped by a media that is thoroughly in the bag for your opponent. \u00a0You are on the road eight days a week, between debates, campaign stops and fundraisers. \u00a0Your staff – small, young, underpaid and and running more on Red Bull than cash – is doing the work of a couple of staffs.<\/p>\n So given the above, triage the following activities:<\/p>\n Which of the above a)\u00a0must <\/em>you do, which will you b) do the best you can, and c) which miiiiiight <\/em>just fall through the cracks?<\/p>\n If “3” is anything but “c”, you have no future as a shoestring underdog campaigner. \u00a0However, I know a chick named Lydia who might dig you…<\/p>\n Lydia would dig Jeff Rosenberg of MnPublius. <\/em>Jeffthinks he’s onto something<\/a>; he and his blog-mate Zack Stevenson appearently noticed that while Mark Buesgens had left the Emmer Campaign on September 13, the state Campaign Finance Board website still showed Buesgens as the campaign’s chairman.<\/p>\n The Emmer campaign had apparently had the temerity to insist that Buesgens had left the campaign on the 13th to take a position at the Minnesota GOP.<\/p>\n The Emmer campaign, instead of just telling the truth and admitting that its campaign chair made a mistake, fell back on its time-honored practice of trying to mislead Minnesotans. They claimed Buesgens was no longer the campaign chair, when in fact he had been attending functions as campaign chair just the day before.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n
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