Governor Dayton is, by all accounts, a decent enough person.
My next-door neighbor, coincidentally, is a decent enough person too. She’s also got terrible eyesight as she approaches her eighties, and doesn’t belong behind the wheel, by her own admission. Nice lady; no car.
One need not attack Governor Dayton’s personality to note that something’s just a tad…off. In 2005, he shut down his Senate office after an unattributed terror threat, leaving Washington to be run by just the other 534 other Congresspeople, prompting left-slanted Time to call him the worst Senator in America.
He left the Senate in 2006, amid rumors he’d had an alcoholic relapse.
It took the DFL and Alita Messinger four years to rehabilitate him. They managed this with a complete blackout on any facts about Governor Dayton’s health or mental state. I pointed it out during the 2010 campaign; the Strib wrote precisely one piece about Dayton’s mental health – a piece by Rachel Stassen-Berger and reliable DFL shill Baird Helgeson.
That appeared in December of 2009. Roughly 10 months before most Minnesota voters started caring about the governor race; the very definition of “punching the ticket early”.
And today? Almost five years after that single, solitary report about the Governor’s state of health?
John Gilmore at Minnesota Conservatives has covered this issue more than most:
Dayton hasn’t released his medical records so we don’t know for sure which medications he is being administered. It defies firsthand experience and common sense, however, to pretend that he is not frequently heavily medicated in public.
Can anyone imagine an engaged Mark Dayton on a full time basis, in public view most of the day for a solid week? Of course not. He’s carefully handled to appear for only limited amounts of time in public. Even then, most people cringe out of compassion given his performance…
Media know how impaired Dayton has become but don’t particularly care: they’re on the same team and none of them would do anything to harm the progressive agenda. If a republican governor, however, were this manifestly troubled, Minnesota media would cloak themselves in the phony “the public has a right to know” rubric and have at it.
The Minnesota media that herniated itself to get to a story about Rod Grams’s son (of whom Grams had not had custody in some time), to a long litany of would-be (but never-were) scandals about Norm Coleman, about Tom Emmer’s 20 year old driving records, about…anything with the eternally teflon-coated Tim Pawlenty, can’t be bothered to cover actual news about a sitting governor with a past that would make any potential employer sit up and go “er…let’s talk about…”
It’s campaign ad fodder, of course:
And then there’s this – a compendium of Mark Dayton video appearances. And tell me – is this someone who’s “leading the polls by nine points”, or whatever, by grace of his merits as a leader?
Or listen to this speech – the infamous speech at the Humphrey Institute in September, 2012; the one whose video the Humphrey Institute had the balls to claim it couldn’t release because “videotape is too expensive”, and whose video no TV station will release. Read John Gilmore’s account for the mental visuals whose literal visuals the powers that be don’t think you, Citizen, need to see.
And then ask yourself not just “should this man be governor”.
Ask yourself “is our media incompetent, or in the bag”.
Or both, of course.
Don’t forget the Strib’s hunt to identify and interview any or all of Bachmann’s 20+ foster children.
Foster children are a mixed lot. It is inevitble that, out of 20+ foster children, a few will be found whose poor life style choices can be layed at Bachmann’s feet, or who will gladly badmouth Bachmann in return for a few minutes of fame.
On the other hand:
” Dayton says he started drinking late in his lone Senate term and checked himself into a treatment center for a week.”
http://blogs.mprnews.org/capitol-view/2009/12/mark_dayton_tal/
Dayton doesn’t have to worry about the Strib asking him uncomfortable questions about his ‘relapse’.
I hate rich toff’s who decide that they need to inflict their psychosis on others to make themselves feel better about their miserable existences.
Dayton was into some weird, new-agey cults and psych treatment in the 80s and 90s. It is almost certain he was plied with prescription, psych-active drugs during that time. There are some bad people out their, many of them with degrees in psychiatry or psychology, who would love to get their hands on a rich, depressed guy like Dayton and milk him for all he is worth.
If Toronto can have a crackhead, MN can have a Dayton.
Actually, after viewing that compendium of Dayton slurring and muttering, I can’t help but feel a touch of genuine concern for his well-being.
I think that the governor’s past history of chemical dependency alone, when viewed in light of viable mental health treatments, should disqualify him.
Given his CD recovery, it is possible that he does not take MH medications for fear of relapse. Or, worse, his unfortunate tendency to rely on chemicals could cause him to over-medicate.
While it is possible that he is able to manage both demons appropriately, the end result of his treatments, as evidenced by his public appearances, is far from desirable and those pointing it out cannot be called “bullies” or insensitive.
I truly wish him well with his problems. He seems like a nice guy and I’d choose him as a next door neighbor over a number of republican candidates. However, nice is nice, but competent should preferred in political office holders.
I reject the notion that Mark Dayton is a nice man. A nice man wouldn’t associate with a goon squad like the Alliance for a Better Minnesota.
Mr. D: while you’re probably right, I still can’t rule out the possibility that the governor may not have a full grip on what is going on, on who’s who, or what’s what. I’m sure he relies on his ex and his handlers to make through anything related to his current office.
It is possible that his apparent confusion over his own taxation legislation a while back could be explained in that way. A perfect pawn in a game too complex for him to grasp. Kind of like a Chauncey Gardner without a chance, the perfect tool for behind the scenes players.
PM, I’d gladly box a dozen other frauds to get my hands on Dayton and milk him for all he’s worth.
PaulC, if they re-elect him, Minnesotans deserve to witness a full on meltdown. Save your concern for those deserving of it.
It is possible that his apparent confusion over his own taxation legislation a while back could be explained in that way. A perfect pawn in a game too complex for him to grasp. Kind of like a Chauncey Gardner without a chance, the perfect tool for behind the scenes players.
To believe that, you have to ignore his long career as an opportunist and a demagogue, a career that goes back nearly 40 years now.
swiftee,
The sad thing is that Minnesotans will surely re-elect Dayton – along with every other available Democrat. It would take Jesse Ventura running to beat Dayton.
Is it too late for that?
My intent was to portray Governor Dayton as innocent by incompetence due to his CD/ MH problems and as a person who means no harm.
Interestingly, my theory is far less flattering than is your portrayal of him as a competent, successful but evil schemer who’s been able to pull it off for decades.
This is just an observation, not a point of contention. The left had done that to “W” for a long time; on one hand a bumbling idiot, on the other hand an evil genius.
Interestingly, my theory is far less flattering than is your portrayal of him as a competent, successful but evil schemer who’s been able to pull it off for decades.
I don’t think he’s evil, but when he’s not mumbling, I take Dayton at his word, Joe. When he calls his opponent a huckster and compares the PolyMet mine to the chopsticks factory boondoggle that incidentally happened on Dayton’s watch 35+ years ago, he demonstrates that he still has synapses firing in the miasma of his otherwise incoherent public pronouncements. He’s Rick Nolan wrapped in gauze.
I also think a lot of Democrats are quite sincere in their beliefs, but too many of them have grown comfortable with situational ethics.
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