Brian Barnes is running for Congress in the 3rd CD.
You might not have heard of him, even if you live there. He’s run a fairly hapless, lackluster campaign, with none of the cachet or pizzazz of Ashwin Madia. I think the only serious question about his campaign so far has been “is Erik Paulsen going to win by two digits, or three?”
But there’s another question worth asking, too: where the hell does he get his information?
At a “Drinking Liberally” event on Monday night, Barnes gave his opinion on Erik Paulsen’s police union endorsements. A tracker got some tape:
(Note: Not a celebrity impersonator)
Here’s the transcript, with emphasis added:
“He’s got some signs that say police endorsed and the interesting thing is that is a group that is very, uh, the group that endorsed him is a group of extreme right wing, uh, law enforcement support group that puts up a façade if you will…” Brian Barnes 8/20/2012
The police unions are “Extreme Right Wing?”
The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association endorsed Amy Klobuchar. They also endorsed Mark Dayton and Tarryl Clark in 2010.
The Fraternal Order of Police have also endorsed Amy Klobuchar, not to mention “extreme conservatives” like Ann Rest, Joe Atkins, Jim Carlson and plenty of others (as well as John Kline and a few other Republicans).
Both organizations also opposed the bipartisan Minnesota Personal Protection Act (the 2003-2005 carry reform bill) and Tony Cornish’s “Stand Your Ground” bill, which passed the legislature with bipartisan support but was vetoed by Governor Bored Dilettante, who used the Police unions’ statements to “justify” the veto in much the same way as Germany used the “Battle of Gleiwitz”.
So why would Barnes call the seemingly left-of-center police unions “extreme right wing?”
Given the left’s nationwide reliance on “low-information voters” and the fact that Twin Cities leftybloggers are the lowest-information voters of all, is he just saying it because he knows nobody will check him on it?
Had he had too many drinks already?
Or was he so depressed at being in that throng of misanthropic mopes that he just didn’t give a crap anymore?
I vote 50% A) and 50% he’s a political hack who’s in over his head.
“Low information voters?”
That’s a euphemism, right? I know who you’re talking about. I work with them, I go to church with them, I hear them speak through alternate orifices about the state of things. I’ve come to realize they cannot be brought to reason.
They can only be defeated. Their “conversion” to sanity can only be achieved by allowing them to crash into one of life’s numerous brick walls.
Hey, a “low information candidate”. Think Joe Biden in training.
I think that it is fair to say that a person who believes that having bureaucrats and politicians choose the winners and losers in the marketplace is “building the economy from the bottom up” is a low-information voter.
Come to think of it, “hope” and “change” is not exactly information-rich, is it?
Wow, Mitch, I saw a lot of “VOTE NO” video on the Fox9 MN Fair food & polytix segment!!
he just went from getting 30% of the vote to 15-20% of the vote
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