Category Archives: Campaign ’08

Posts related to the 2008 Presidential, Senate, Congressional and State races.

Begging A Gnarly Question

Posted on by
9

Surprising results from the recount, says the PiPress – most of Coleman’s pick-up is coming from Minneapolis:

But Minneapolis — the biggest, bluest pile of all — is turning [the notion that the inner city should be a treasure trove of dangling Franken chads] on its head. With nearly half of its ballots recounted, the city Franken calls home isn’t doing the candidate any favors. And that could be dimming Franken’s hopes of catching Coleman before the state canvassing board meets Dec. 16.

‘Things are clearly moving in the wrong direction for Franken,’ said [the inevitable] Larry Jacobs, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for the Study of Politics and Governance.

With fewer than half of the ballots counted in Minneapolis, Franken has lost 86 votes, while Coleman has lost just 37. In other words, the city could be blunting any recount advantage Franken might have in the rest of the state as the recount rolls toward its Dec. 5 deadline.”

So here’s the question:  why was Minneapolis’ original count so short of Coleman ballots?

Oh Me Of Little Faith

Posted on by
2

I try, as a matter of principle, to keep partisan watchfulness/cynicism out of how I view the exercise of democracy.  Pinky swear, I do.

It’d be a lot easier, in re Minnesota’s ongoing recount, if Minnesota’s Secretary of State weren’t someone who’d come into office pledging radical changes in our electoral system, and flaunting affiliations with ACORN, the liberal fraud mill. 

As it is?  Hanging on by the skin of my teeth:

With Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman clinging to a reed-thin lead over DFL challenger Al Franken — 180 votes as of Saturday night — the issue of how and when absentee ballots should be counted has election law experts everywhere closely tracking the Minnesota recount drama.

In a race this tight, the difference could come down to clerical errors on absentee ballots or even a challenge of Minnesota’s law governing such ballots.

“Campaigns over the years have challenged anything and everything,” said recount expert Timothy Downs, principal author of “The Recount Primer” who has been involved in most major recounts over the years, including the biggest: Gore vs. Bush in 2000. Downs’ co-author, Chris Sautter, hit the ground in Minneapolis last week as part of Franken’s recount team.

This recount – between a solid, moderate incumbent Senator and a facile polemicist with issues – is almost a bigger embarassment than having had Jesse Ventura as governor;  Ventura was the product of a more trivial time in politics, when states could afford the political equivalent of a drunken one-night stand. 

That Franken is even in the running, that he was even endorsed, should embarass us all.

DFL Lawyer: “Yes, Roosh – They Are Dumb And Happy!”

Posted on by
14

A gaffe is when a politician slips up and tells the truth.

I guess it also applies to politicians’ lawyers:

“People who voted for Coleman are more likely to have taken the SAT in their lifetime,” [Bill Star, Franken lawyer] said. “They’ve filled in circles. Franken voters are probably not college-educated. They’re new voters and immigrants. They’ve been brought in by groups like ACORN, from the inner cities. They’re more likely to make mistakes. I’ve bounced this off of minority people, and they agree with me.”

No word as to whether they’re bitter and clingy, and over or to what.

It reminds me of this line from Jennifer Vogel’s classic of hYpStR condescenscion:

A favorite scene from the election took place at my local polling place, in a historically Polish neighborhood. An African woman wearing bright robes stood in a gray plastic voting booth with her ballot. She spoke only a little English, so she asked for assistance. A poll volunteer approached and embarked upon a lengthy explanation. The African woman interrupted. “Kerry,” she said loudly. “I want Kerry.” That was that.

Liberal GOTV in action; give the cattle a name to memorize and herd ’em into the polls.

I’m so proud to be an American today.

We Be Dumb, But We Be Happy

Posted on by
42

As the saying goes “the people they’ve been waiting for” may not be the brightest bulbs on the tree.

A recent Zogby poll: they can’t even find the tree.

83% failed to correctly answer that Obama had won his first election by getting all of his opponents removed from the ballot, and 88% did not correctly associate Obama with his statement that his energy policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry. Most (56%) were also not able to correctly answer that Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground.

Nearly three quarters (72%) of Obama voters did not correctly identify Biden as the candidate who had to quit a previous campaign for President because he was found to have plagiarized a speech, and nearly half (47%) did not know that Biden was the one who predicted Obama would be tested by a generated international crisis during his first six months as President. . . .

57% of Obama voters were unable to correctly answer that Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate.

The test was multiple choice. This goes a long way to explaining how BHO garnered such momentum in the race for the White House.

Just So We’re Clear On Context, Here

Posted on by
4

Zack at MNPublius writes:

If Katherine Kersten can’t find evidence of misconduct by a DFLer, than there isn’t any. But don’t take my word for it. Look at the words of Fritz Knaak, Norm Coleman’s attorney for the recount. When asked about the handling of the canvassing process, Fritz said it was “neither wrong nor unfair.”

Which could mean…:

  1. There is “nothing wrong or unfair”
  2. Republicans don’t want to act like (some) Democrats have over the past eight years, throwing wild, baseless and dim-witted accusations that undercut confidence in democracy to try to undermine the legitimacy of [fill in the GOP winner].
  3. Some indeterminate combination of the above.

It’s called “being a grownup”. 

Did “That One” Forget That He Won the Election?

Posted on by
25

…he certainly didnt’ forget he’s a liberal.

…and he certainly didn’t forget his teleprompter…but it does appear someone set it up a bit too high. Barack Obama usually likes to look down on us angry Americans, not up to us.

Another campaign speech from the Office of the President-Elect. Thanks for the reminder el Presidente’. I think we know we are in a recession. Your people caused it, remember?

He throws a $150 Billion around like we have it. Folks, best hope for another World War because that’s what it took to pull us out of the Great Depression, which was extended by the last “New Deal.”

Thoughts On Listening To A Prairie Home Companion

Posted on by
4

For one reason or another, I usually wind up driving somewhere on Saturdays between 5 and 7 – if not for the entire two hours, at least in bits and pieces.

And one of my favorite rituals during that time is to flip over to MPR to listen to A Prairie Home Companion.  Say what you will about Garrison Keillor’s politics (hard left) and personality (a**hole); I just plain like the show.  The music’s usually great; the sketch comedy’s often good, sometimes great; “News from Lake Wobegon” may be a funny fictional ramble to most people, but if you grew up Scandinavian in the Midwest, it’s more like a documentary. 

But listening to Keillor’s post-election show, I couldn’t help but think:  for eight years in defeat, Keillor was graceless, venal and churlish; it stands to reason that in victory, he’s utterly insufferable.

She’s In Your Head! Really!

Posted on by
17

 Lori Sturdevant remains the DFL Party’s primary unpaid PR flak among the Twin Cities’ mainstream media (although Rachel Stassen-Berger at the PiPress is closing in fast). 

In yesterdays’ column, she pines for “Instant Runoff Voting” because – why else? – it would have put more DFLers in power:

Play the what-if game that’s the rage among Minnesotans who are sick of plurality-rule elections:

(…a subset of voters that includes poli-sci grad students, a few newspaper columnists, a couple of math majors who love to design “cool new systems for running society” in their spare time, and Twin Cities’ third-party members, who believe they’re everyone’s “second choice” for power.  Really – Ed.) 

What if last week’s plebiscite had been conducted under the vote-by-number system called instant-runoff voting?

For more on IRV, read here.  And I mean read carefully.  It’s  a system that only a math major could love or, for that matter, really understand.  I’ll leave the listing of IRV’s disadvantages to that piece, for now.

Here’s my opening bid:

•The Senate race might still be headed for a recount. But there’s a decent chance that it would be with DFLer Al Franken, not Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, in the leader’s spot.

[smug, self-serving speculation removed for brevity’s sake]

And how would the Senate race have changed in message, tone and maybe outcome if the voters’ second choices had mattered all along? Might the fight have been more about, say, health care, and less about old comedy sketches? (See how delightfully speculative this game can be?)

And the “Recount” would be done entirely by machine, centrally, at the Minnesota State Department, managed almost entirely by sorting algorhithms, far too complex for people – indeed, there’d be almost no way for actual humans to follow it.  Odd, really, considering that among IRV’s most ardent supporters are the same people who thought Diebold and the other electronic balloting operations were in the tank for the GOP (who’ve been curiously silent for the past two cycles). 

•U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann would not be headed back to Congress. The outspoken Republican culture warrior wound up at 46.4 percent on Tuesday. Every other vote cast in the north suburban Sixth District, I’ll venture, was an anti-Bachmann vote. 

I’ll venture that Lori Sturdevant was huffing paint when she wrote this piece.

No, I have just as much evidence as she does.

Seriously.  Was “every vote” cast for Jesse Ventura in 1998 an “Anti-Norm Coleman, Anti-Skip Humphrey” vote?  Of course not.  Many were “ignorant nutslap who think it’d be fun to vote for a wrestler” votes.  Many more were “Lower fees on my jet-ski” and “Hey, $1,000 back from the government!” votes.  Many many more were “I don’t care much about politics, but I saw Jesse Ventura’s ad, and it made me laugh” votes. 

In the Sixth?  I suspect (with every bit as much evidence as Sturdevant brings to the table) that the “Anti-Bachmann” votes were easily diluted by the “pox on both their houses” votes, the “Hey, a Norwegian last name” vote, and – rare as this might be – the tiny film of IP voters who realized that Bob Anderson who actually a fiscal conservative and former Republican. 

Note, by the way, her main reason for supporting IP so far (other than “pluralities make me sad”); it’ll get her pet candidates elected.  The ends, in Lori’s curious little world, do justify the means.

•Republican Erik Paulsen would still have the U.S. Rep.-elect title in the Third. My thinking: Paulsen is close to the 50 percent mark already, at 48.5 percent. My unscientific, skimpy sample of voters who opted for the IP’s David Dillon include a fair share who would have given their No. 2s to Paulsen.

So Paulsen benefits from real-life ambiguity, but every single person who voted for Bob Anderson was an “Anti-Bachmann” voters.  Such is the order of the world in that special little space we call “Lori Sturdevant’s mind”.   

•State Rep. Ron Erhardt of Edina would have been reelected. Instead, he was the second-place loser to Republican Rep.-elect Keith Downey in a city that Barack Obama carried with 55 percent of the vote.

Right.

Which is also in a state with a statistical tie for Senate, and where conservative Erik Paulsen won by eight points, both in Lori Sturdevant’s special little world and the real one!

How, you ask?

Don’t:

In third place in the District 41A contest, just 134 votes behind Erhardt, was DFLer Kevin Staunton. If Edina voters used IRV, would DFL voters have given their No. 2s to a small-government, socially conservative Republican, or to a maverick former Republican who was a prime mover of the big transportation bill in 2008? If second choices had been registered and counted, this one wouldn’t have been close.

Presuming, of course, that Lori Sturdevant – she of the selective ambiguity and constantly-shifting context in this district – is really that clairvoyant.

Three-way races have become the norm at the top of the ballot and are proliferating further down. Last week, the Edina legislative seat was won with 36.7 percent of the vote.

And as a result of which…what?

The earth opened and swallowed the city whole?

No?  The mayor, elected with a third-and-change of the vote, had to govern by compromise, as an executive with a plurality rather than a decisive mandate?

The horror!

Seriously – this would be the future of politics with IRV:  candidates elected with phony “majorities” (derived from obscure machinations carried out without the vaguest possibility of human scrutiny, without even a paper trail!), who exist in a political netherworld, not really certain they have a majority, but unsure of how far from majority they really are. 

 Every Minnesotan who thinks democracy should mean majority rule will be watching.

And every Minnesota who thinks that “a phony majority delivered by a voting system one degree of separation from a math-major parlor game is a way to run a government” should have their heads examine.

But not by Lori Sturdevant. 

UPDATE:  A commenter to the column asks: “What if we could instant run-off the worst columnist at the Strib?
We can dream”

The hard part would be actually ranking the “choices”.

Strib Editors: “Ignore The Man Behind The Curtain!”

Posted on by
Reply

The Strib’s post-election editorial holds no major suprises – those all came before the election, when the Strib surprisingly endorsed Norm Coleman over Al Franken.

But when I say “no surprises”, I also mean there’s no change in their overall policy toward Republicans; “the only good republican is one that’s indistinguishable from a DFLer”. 

First, on Governor Pawlenty:

Despite losing out to Sarah Palin in the VP competition, Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s future within the Republican Party remains bright. He’s a legitimate candidate for the GOP nomination in 2012, when he might well face Palin again. What will Pawlenty’s national aspirations mean for Minnesota?

Actually, they’d make a great team:  Palin, given four years to polish her approach, has the potential to be a Reagan-like spokeswoman for free-enterprise, limited government, and America as a “shining city” (as opposed to a sick, old giant that needs intensive care – the central message of Obama’s supporters, if not The One himself).  Pawlenty could provide the George HW Bush role – the duo’s technocrat, the head-knocker, the detail guy. 

That’s unclear, but what is certain is that Minnesota needs the governor to provide the state with skilled and pragmatic leadership as we negotiate a deep economic downturn and serious budget challenges. In January, he’ll be working with a new Legislature comprising more DFLers and fewer moderate Republicans. Pawlenty should read DFL legislative successes as a call from voters for him to take a less rigidly conservative posture as the state addresses what is expected to be a major budget deficit.

Good lord, why?

Indeed, that’d be exactly the wrong “lesson” to take from the election.

“Moderate” Republicanism – the GOP of facile sloganeering and going along to stay in power – was the biggest loser of the last two election cycles.  If Pawlenty doesn’t see the real message – that real conservatism, in the guise of Michele Bachmann, Erik Paulsen and John Kline was the big winner (among GOP factions, obviously – we got beaten nationwide, surely enough) in this past election – then he needs to.   

More than ever, Minnesotans need and expect problem-solving compromises at the Capitol.

And to Strib editors, “compromise” unfortunately always seems to be “shut up and go along with the DFL”. 

We can not have that.

The Strib moves on to the Ventura “Independence” Party.

Even harder questions need to be asked by, and of, the Independence Party. After another round of weak showings and indistinct messages by its candidates, the IP’s reason for existence is no longer clear. What is clear is that IP candidates were spoilers this year, contributing to the election of candidates who lacked majority support in several key races. David Dillon, the party’s Third District congressional candidate who won 11 percent of the vote, hit the right note Wednesday. “It’s a legitimate, fair question. It bugs some people in the Independence Party that we have to wonder what our purpose is if all we’re doing is ruining the results for one side.”

It’s a question I keep asking my V“I”P friends:  since your party really is nothing but Jesse Ventura’s ever-eroding legacy, and in non-presidential years you barely cling to major-party status in Minnesota, and the party’s essense is really just the most irritating possible combination of “DFL-Lite” policies and third-party idealism (“We greens/libertarians/Constitution Party/whatever are not in power, and never really will be (shaddap about Ventura), so of course we can solve all the world’s problems – in our minds!”), and they will never again win a single significant office in this state (and Minnesota’s  V“I”P is nothing but the ghostly, solitary echo of what was once Ross Perot’s “Reform” party, nationwide – then why do you exist? What is the goal?

Don’t say “Winning elections” – the Libertarians say the same thing, with about as much credibilty.

Does the  V“I”P really want to just go on as spoilers forever?  As they soak up votes for moderate/pragmatic DFLers (and people who are suckers for idealistic sloganeering) I’m fine with that, of course, but for your (plural) own good, you might wanna think about it…

Minneapolis: A Cold La Paz

Posted on by
Reply

I know, I know.

I’m one of those Republicans who’s been castigating Democrats for the past eight years for frivolously trying to devalue our democratic process and the integrity of our elections by spuriously, speciously undermining confidence in our electoral process.  Their constant, fraudulent complaining after the 2000 election spawned a cottage industry in conspiracy theories (which left fertile ground for an even more fertile, and damaging conspiracy-mongering after 9/11), combined with the endless drumbeat of voter registration and voter fraud cases involving Democrats, have left a lot of Americans worried about the integrity and validity of our elections, rightly or wrongly.

Here in Minnesota, we’ve always been proud of running clean elections.  Like most responsible conservatives, I’ve done my best to try to uphold that impression (even as liberals spent years and millions trying to undercut former Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer through callow rumormongering during the ’04 and ’06 races).  Watching the chicanery that’s hobbled the reputation of elections in so many other states (including neighboring Wisconsin), it’s been easy to feel thankful that we live here.

And so as the re-canvass of the US Senate election between Coleman and Franken (and Dean Barkley) proceeds toward the statutory recount, the imperative to maintain confidence in our system (even though it is currently run by doctrinaire DFL activist Mark Ritchie and his cohorts) is a strong one.

And yet, it’s hard not to wonder how stupid they think we are.

Party On Wayne. Party on Garth.

Posted on by
7

[Cliff Clavin] “Ahhhh, it’s a little know fact Nawm, that uh, America does not have a two party system. There is actually to date quite a few political parties. Truth be told, this year I voted for the Cool Moose candidate, a Mr. Bill Winkle.”[end Cliff Clavin]

To wit:

AC A Connecticut Party
AF American First Coalition
AH American Heritage Party
AI American Independent Pty
AK Alaskan Independence
AN American Constitution
AM American
BD Builders Party
BT Boston Tea
B Better Schools
BR Buchanan Reform
CC Concerned Citizens
CE Centrist Party
CF Citizens First
CM Cool Moose
CN Constitutional
CP Concerns of People
C Conservative
CS Constitution
CL CT for Lieberman
DC DC Statehood Green Party
D Democrat
E End Suffolk Legislature
FA Fair
FE Free Energy Party
F Fusion Independent
FR Freedom
Fr Friends United
FB Farmers & Small Business
FS Freedom Socialist
FV Family Values Party
GC Green Coalition Party
GN Greens No To War
GR Green
G Grass Roots Party
HC Healthcare Party
HP Home Protection
HQ Heartquake ’08
IA Independent American
IF Independent Fusion
IL Independent Grassroots
I Independent
IN Independence
IT Integrity Party
IP Independent Party
IR Independent-Progressive
IC Ind. Save Our Children
L Liberal
LO Looking Back Party
LA Labor and Farm
LB Libertarian
LF Long Island First
LM Legalize Marijuana
LU Liberty Union
LP Liberty Union/Progressiv
MJ Marijuana Party
MM Make Marijuana Legal
MN Mountain Party
MR Marijuana Reform Party
NA New Alliance
NE Nebraska
NH No Home Heat Tax
NL Natural Law Party
NT No New Taxes
NO No
NP Non-Partisan
ND No Party Designation
OB Objectivist
OE One Earth
OP Open
OT 128 District
AO Other
PC Pacific
PN Pacific Green
PP Patriot Party
PA Pacifist
PH Personal Choice
PE Petitioning Candidate
P Party of Ethics & Tradit
PF Peace and Freedom
PJ Peace and Justice
PL Pro Life Conservative
PO Populist
PG Progressive
PR Prohibition
PS Preserve Our Town
PT Property Tax Cut
PV People of Vermont
PW Protect Working Families
R Republican
RS Resource Party
RC Randolph for Congress
RJ Restore Justice-Freedom
RM Reform Minnesota
RF Reform Party
RD Republican Moderate
RL Right to Life
SC School Choice
SL Socialism
SS Save Seniors
SE Socialist Equality
S Save Medicare
SO Socialist
SU Socialist USA
ST Star Tax Cut
SF Student First
SW Socialist Workers Party
BL The Better Life
T Tax Cut
TC Tax Cut Now
TG The Go
TL Term Limits
TS Timesizing
UC United Citizen
UN Unaffiliated
U Unenrolled
UD United
TX U.S. Taxpayers Party
UY Unity
VT Veterans Party
GS Vermont Grassroots
V Voice of the People
VP Voters Rights Party
WC Working Class Party
WF Working Families
WN West Side Neighbors
WP We the People
WV Workers for Vermont
WW Workers World
YS Yes

Post-Mortem

Posted on by
42

One of my biggest worries coming out of the 2000 Republican Convention as a disappointed Forbes supporter was the thought that the party had turned into a support mechanism for George W. Bush more than for a set of first principles.

Jay Reding noticed the same thing, and examines its role, among other things, in McCain’s defeat:

From 2000 on, the GOP was unified around George W. Bush. From about 2005 on, Bush was as toxic as a mortgage-backed security. Political movements based around single individuals do not tend to last, and by hitching their wagons to Bush, the Republican Party sowed the seeds of their own downfall…

…The failure of the McCain campaign must be tied to the failure of the Bush Presidency. He fought on a completely uneven playing field. The media was in the tank for Obama, and the Democratic machine was energized. But that doesn’t excuse the mistakes of the McCain campaign. They had the right message in the “Country First” theme, but they never really used it effectively. McCain could have won, but it would have taken an incredibly smart campaign to have done it. Instead, the McCain campaign went for the tried-and-true techniques of Bush 2000 and 2004—in a political climate that could not have been more different.

Via whatever means, the GOP needs to reorganize itself – and fast – around conservatism’s first principles, and providing a meaningful alternative to the Dems. 

Clearly, the party showed that where we do this – for example, the Third and Sixth Districts – the message resonates with people:  liberty, prosperity, security, culture, limited government and family works as a message.  Certainly better than “better than the other guys, plus with earmarks!”

Oh, yeah – while the GOP became the Bush Party for  a couple of terms,  Jay notes…:

(Note that the Democrats are doing the same with Obama now. Sic transit gloria mundi.)

I’m waiting to see what happens when people wake up and find out Obama’s not going to give them bread and circuses pay their gas and mortgage bills.

Obama Makes History Twice in Two Days

Posted on by
28

That’s right Mitch, the Market didn’t exactly endorse Obama’s victory. In fact, Barack Obama made history two days in a row: the largest post-election stock market plunge in history.

Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) — The stock market posted its biggest plunge following a presidential election as reports on jobs and service industries stoked concern the economy will worsen even as President-elect Barack Obama tries to stimulate growth.

Apparently the market has a different idea as to what will stimulate growth. Does the market not think that raising taxes and expanding government are good things? Is the market wondering why Liberals and their followers haven’t learned their lesson yet?

History…

Year Dow President-Elect

2008 -5.05% Barack Obama

2004 +1.01% George W. Bush

2000 -0.41% No decision: G.W. Bush v Al Gore*

1996 +1.59% William Clinton

1992 -0.91% William Clinton

1988 -0.43% George H. W. Bush

1984 -0.88% Ronald Reagan

1980 +1.70% Ronald Reagan

1976 -0.99% James Carter

1972 -0.11% Richard Nixon

1968 +0.34% Richard Nixon

1964 -0.19% Lyndon Johnson

1960 +0.77% John Kennedy

Draw your own conclusions…

Voter’s Remorse

Posted on by
4

Not everyone is celebrating The One’s ascenscion:

A case of post-election nerves sent stocks plunging Wednesday as investors, again anxious about a recession, began questioning what impact a Barack Obama presidency will have on business and the overall economy. The Dow Jones industrials dropped more than 400 points and the major indexes all fell more than 4 percent.

That last brief flash of pre-election McCain optimism, I’m pretty convinced, was what gave us that nice Monday rally.

Change Trumped Experience Last Night

Posted on by
18

From another Financial Advisor and close friend of mine “Casey R.”:

A few very important things occurred to me as I was watching predictable election results unfold last night.  An obvious fact remains based on the votes received by each candidate – we are still very much divided in this country, very evenly divided.

Obama won the majority vote and a delivered a corresponding “pounding” in what both parties recognize as a “quirky” electoral college.  Even though I was more comfortable with the experience of McCain, I understand and appreciate the rationale that lead so many to look to a motivational and charismatic man as an impetus for change.

I became very worried throughout the campaign as I learned more about Obama’s liberal voting history and limited efforts to vote outside his party. Democrats held McCain to the same standard and found that, although he did tackle non-partisan issues in Washington, he sided too often with a misguided President during his first term for their comfort.

Obama earned respect from me with his moment of candid humility last night.  It came with the admittance that for the nearly 50% of the country that didn’t vote for him, he needed to do his best to earn their support and confidence and he knew he couldn’t simply assume it.

Continue reading →

Class Warfare

Posted on by
25

When I say “righties, please keep this in perspective”, this is what I”m talking about – Joe “Learned Foot” Tucci at KAR writes:

For those leftybloggers out there trolling for a little schadenfreude, that’s all I got. Sorry. He is my president. He was elected, not selected. Somewhere in south Chicago there isn’t a village missing an idiot. My happiness is not dictated by who’s in office. I’m still an adult, and you’re still a spittle-chucking rage-addicted child. What Nihilist said.

And what did Nihilist say?

Now we conservatives are free to adapt the tactics of the left, to abandon reason and make inflammatory proclamations with regard to our new chief executive.

I want to be first. I want to say something so antithetical to the beliefs of the MoveOn, Kos, Olberman nuts that it will give them a taste of what they put us through for eight years. Here goes.

Tonight I say a PRAYER for our new President-elect, Barak Obama. I hope GOD will guide his decisions and give him the strength and wisdom to lead America forward. I also PRAY for our leaders in Congress, that GOD may watch over them too. I realize that this may be too much for the nuts to bear, but tonight I PRAY for them too. To paraphrase Jeramiah Wright (sort of):

GOD bless America? Yeah, what the heck! GOD bless America!

What they said.

Joe And Jane the Plumber…

Posted on by
17

…have apparently gotten together and tubed same-sex marriage in California:

A measure to once again ban gay marriage in California led Tuesday, throwing into doubt the unions of an estimated 18,000 same-sex couples who wed during the last 4 1/2 months.

The Democrats won the election – but even in California, most Americans are conservatives, even if they don’t always vote (or know) it.

The Biggest Loser…

Posted on by
9

…last night?

Mark “I’m Not Guy” Richie, former DFL “community organizer” and party hack, and current Minnesota “Secretary of State”. 

In my four hours on the air last night, I could not once get election results from the POS SOS website.  I got constant server errors; “the server can not handle current traffic levels” (and, as this is written, it’s still down!).

Under Mary Kiffmeyer – the utterly capable SOS that Richie deposed in the bloodbath of 2006 – the site ran like a charm.

I don’t expect Mark Richie to be in there cranking out ASP code on his own – but delivering election results to the people is a part of his job.  A big part.

I think the move to toss this amateur poseur from office needs to take on Manhattan Project-level urgency.

Not Only Am I Not Moving To Canada…

Posted on by
36

(…like some snivelling beeyotch liberals are always whinging about doing if their anointed one loses)…

…but I’m feeling pretty good today.

Here’s why:

Can’t Fight History

I’m not going to say Barack Obama was “inevitable” – there is virtually no such thing in electoral politics – but the GOP hit a perfect storm last night:  a popular (if skin-deep) candidate, a war, an economic crisis, the historical fact that it’s very hard for a party to keep power after eight years even if it’s doing its ideological blocking and tackling correctly, and the fact that the GOP and the conservative movement have pretty much blown most of their blocks and tackles this past four years.  It would have been hard for any Republican to win; that Mac kept it within four and change defied the media’s “conventional wisdom”.  It was a win, and a mandate, for Obama – but it was not a landslide. 

One thing, by the way, I will not do is countenance on the right is the kind of flagrant, whinging, infantile, and occasionally deranged and paranoid disrespect that has befouled the once-noble American left this past eight years.  The left gave us “smirkingchimp.com” and “democraticunderground.com”, and visits them constantly.  I suspect if some conservative starts “jug-eared-fop.blogspot.com”, it will languish in obscurity.  Let’s hope so.  Even if you don’t respect the man (and Obama is a respectable person, wrongness about all things political notwithstanding), you respect the office.  I do expect the Right to behave better than the left has; I doubt I’ll be disappointed.

And here’s the kicker:  Now The One-Elect has to go on and prove to the mass of people who came out to vote for him that he can, indeed, walk on water and heal the sick.  Some pundits say Obama needs to “lower expectations” – but while Chris Matthews can smear Anbesol on his leg to stifle the tingling, there are a whole lot of people who elected Obama with very high expectations.

So good one, Democrats.  You won this one.  Try (some of you, at least) to be a little less insufferable in victory than you’ve been in defeat. 

Thanks.

We Can Filibuster

The Democrats expected to get 60 in the Senate.  Last night, Ed and King and I figured they’d come out with 57 or 58 – bad, but still filibusterable.

As of this moment, it’s 55-41, with three races still out:  Stevens will likely win in Alaska (and then be removed, and have a successor appointed by Governor, ahem, Palin); Smith has a decent chance of pulling an upset in Oregon (he’s up a point with 75% reporting), and while Georgia will need to do a runoff to get to its unique, mandated “50%+1” threshold, Saxby Chambliss will likely pull it off.  It’s not a “victory”, but in a year like this, staving off annihilation is mighty fine.

The Tics picked up 20 in the House.  It could have been much worse.  And Minnesota is a key reason I’m feeling good about both houses of Congress.

Because…

Purple, Schmurple

Presidential results notwithstanding, Minnesota got just a bit more red last night. 

You read that right. 

Coleman pulled it off, against an utterly despicable Franken campaign.  The polls just before the election showed either a Franken lead or a tossup – and the latter were right.  Coleman is going to get by with a razor-thin majority when all the recounting is over.  And if he could survive last night, Norm can survive anything.

But much better was to come.

Michele Bachmann in the Sixth District not only beat Elwin “E-Tink” “The 35W Ghoul” Tinklenberg, she beat Chris Matthews, the entire agenda media, funding from coast to coast, and a feckless GOP national apparatus that cut and ran when the media sodomized the context of her remarks on Tinglyball.  Conventional “wisdom” called it a toss-up to a slight edge for E-Tink.  And yet again, the most unrepentant conservative in Minnesota Politics won, and won by way outside anyone’s wildest expectations.  Her three-point win was misleadingly small, I think; the Ventura “Independence” Party’s Bob Anderson is one of the IP’s tiny minority of fiscal conservative/social libertarians that the likes of Dean Barkley have pretty much driven back to the GOP; running unendorsed (the district’s V“I”P endorsed E-Tink, who’d “served” in the Ventura “administration”), he pulled an extremely respectable 10%, indicating the Sixth District is redder than anyone on the left was willing to admit.

Even better news?  The conventional wisdom a few days back showed Ashwin Madia having an edge over Erik Paulsen.  The Lori Sturdevants of the world declared it a fait accompli that the Third District was “turning purple” – it has, indeed, been one of the statements of faith among the Metro’s chattering classes for years.  And yet not only did the Third replace the very moderate (and fellow Jamestown, ND native) Jim Ramstad with the more-conservative Erik Paulsen, but they did it with a margin that absolutely crushed any expectations. 

Almost eight points.

Like Bachmann’s eight-point win two years ago (in a similarly difficult year), it’s proof that the “Minnesota is Purple” talk is a gross oversimplification.

And while there was little doubt that Second District representative John Kline was fairly safe, his fifteen point win over Steve Sarvi should stifle the left’s wishful bleating that the Two is moving to the middle. 

The Power Of Talk

What were the biggest surprises in Minnesota last night?  Obviously – Bachmann and Paulsen’s unexpectedly-big wins, and the margin by which John Kline crushed Steve Sarvi.

A week ago, nobody predicted this.

A week ago, the Three Tenors of Talk came to town.  They got out an avalanche of the base; the Patriot expected perhaps 1,500 people, maybe; we drew almost 3,000, and were turning people away at the door by the time we were ready go get going last October 28.

A conservative Republican electorate that was widely reported as “despirited” going into that week came out afterward and, to quote Minnesota’s great sage, “shocked the talking heads” at 425 Portland a week later. 

Where does the core of AM1280’s demographic live?

In the Third, the Sixth and the Second Districts.

I’d only “declare victory” this morning as a hyperbolic joke. 

But there is a big silver lining, folks. 

In 2010, if an Obama Administration can’t manage to actually walk on water, the Dems are going to bleed through the ears.

And we will be there pounding on the sides of their heads (rhetorically speaking). 

So be of good cheer, Real Americans.  Not only is the tide going to turn – it’s going to whipsaw.  And Minnesota is going to lead the way.

I am not moving to Canada

Posted on by
54

No need. We just became Canada.

The line forms here.

Am I a sore loser? Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser.

The Big Stink captures the essence for me…

Last night does not mean that my side is wrong – we were merely outnumbered.  …I’m going to be much more selective about whom I fight alongside in the future.  The old allies of “moderate” conservatives, I believe, led us to this dead end.  I no longer have a stomach for them.  They can pack sand.  If the party wants me to hitch my wagon to anything less than a Palin/Reagan conservative – get lost.  I’d rather go down in flames with my principles intact than ally myself with a bunch of rodents who believe conservatism means destroying just a few less liberties than liberalism.

As for me, I am going to work hard as always; not look to the government to solve my problems or pay my mortgage. I am going to enjoy watching Obama’s minions try to cash in the lottery tickets he’s given them, rhetorically speaking. You promised Obammy! -er, I mean Mr. President, sir.

Ah, the perils of high expectations.

Today begins the campaign of ’12.

The Senator Calls a Plumber

Posted on by
10

Barack Obama discovers a leak under his sink, so he calls Joe the Plumber to come and fix it. Joe drives to Obama’s house, which is located in a very nice neighborhood and where it’s clear that all the residents make more than $250,000 per year.

Joe arrives and takes his tools into the house. Joe is led to the room that contains the leaky pipe under a sink. Joe assesses the problem and tells Obama, who is standing near the door, that it’s an easy repair that will take less than 10 minutes.

Obama asks Joe how much it will cost.

Joe immediately says, “$9,500.”

“$9,500?” Obama asks, stunned. “But you said it’s an easy repair!”

“Yes, but what I do is charge a lot more to my clients who make more than $250,000 per year so I can fix the plumbing of everybody who makes less than that for free,” explains Joe. “It’s always been my philosophy. As a matter of fact, I lobbied government to pass this philosophy as law, and it did pass earlier this year, so now all plumbers have to do business this way. It’s known as ‘Joe’s Fair Plumbing Act of 2008.’ Surprised you haven’t heard of it, Senator.”

In spite of that, Obama tells Joe there’s no way he’s paying that much for a small plumbing repair, so Joe leaves.

Obama spends the next hour flipping through the phone book looking for another plumber, but he finds that all other plumbing businesses listed have gone out of business. Not wanting to pay Joe’s price, Obama does nothing.

The leak under Obama’s sink goes unrepaired for the next several days.

A week later the leak is so bad that Obama has had to put a bucket under the sink. The bucket fills up quickly and has to be emptied every hour, and there’s a risk that the room will flood, so Obama calls Joe and pleads with him to return.

Joe goes back to Obama’s house, looks at the leaky pipe, and says “Let’s see – this will cost you about $21,000.”

“A few days ago you told me it would cost $9,500!” Obama quickly fires back.

Joe explains the reason for the dramatic increase. “Well, because of the ‘Joe’s Fair Plumbing Act,’ a lot of rich people are learning how to fix their own plumbing, so there are fewer of you paying for all the free plumbing I’m doing for the people who make less than $250,000. As a result, the rate I have to charge my wealthy paying customers rises every day.

“Not only that, but for some reason the demand for plumbing work from the group of people who get it for free has skyrocketed, and there’s a long waiting list of those who need repairs. This has put a lot of my fellow plumbers out of business, and they’re not being replaced – nobody is going into the plumbing business because they know they won’t make any money. I’m hurting now too – all thanks to greedy rich people like you who won’t pay their fair share.”

Obama tries to straighten out the plumber : “Of course you’re hurting, Joe! Don’t you get it? If all the rich people learn how to fix their own plumbing and you refuse to charge the poorer people for your services, you’ll be broke, and then what will you do?”

Joe immediately replies, “Run for president, apparently.”

HT “Uncle Dave”

Dangerous Measure. Stupid Man.

Posted on by
8

I’m not sure what to think of Senator “Chuckles” Schumer’s take on the return of the “Fairness” Doctrine. 

Three possibilities present themselves:

  1. He’s an idiot.
  2. He assumes his audience and constituency are idiots.
  3. 1 and 2.

Read this and then you be the judge:

Asked if he is a supporter of telling radio stations what content they should have, Schumer used the fair and balanced line, claiming that critics of the Fairness Doctrine are being inconsistent. 

 

“The very same people who don’t want the Fairness Doctrine want the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] to limit pornography on the air. I am for that… But you can’t say government hands off in one area to a commercial enterprise but you are allowed to intervene in another. That’s not consistent.”

There’s a vote for #1; if he thinks political speech is in the same weight class as pornography, he’s clearly been hanging out with Barney Frank and Al Franken too long.

In 2007, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), a close ally of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) told The Hill, “It’s time to reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine. I have this old-fashioned attitude that when Americans hear both sides of the story, they’re in a better position to make a decision.”

There’s a vote for #1 and #2:  Americans can hear dozens of sides to every story, 24/7.  There is no shortage of free speech in this country.

Senate Rules Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) last year said, “I believe very strongly that the airwaves are public and people use these airwaves for profit. But there is a responsibility to see that both sides and not just one side of the big public questions of debate of the day are aired and are aired with some modicum of fairness.”

Another vote for both.  “Fairness” comes from having the ability to get your point out there.  Nothing prevents the left from being heard in (it’s absurd that I have to even mention this) the media. 

 

He also defended “card check” legislation [saying] “there has to be some counter” to the leverage businesses have, claiming “employers have every leg up on people who want to organize and that’s why union workers have gone down from about 25 percent to 6 percent [in the private sector].”

 

There’s a vote for #1, because nobody could be stupid enough to think that a private ballot benefits business any more than it harms unions.

So that’s four votes for “Schumer is an idiot”, and two for “He thinks everyone else is an idiot”. 

As long as Chuckles Schumer sits in office, no New Yorker has any reason to feel superior to any toothless, Klan-voting yokel from Alabama.