Gene Lyons’ Obama problem and how it affects Minnesota

My “hometown” paper is the Hibbing Daily Tribune (in as much as I live in a very rural township with no paper and this one is somewhat close and runs my weekly column). The Tribune, like most small town dailies, doesn’t run nearly as many syndicated columnists as it used to for budget reasons. One they do run is the venerable Gene Lyons based out of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, who backed the Clintons through many of their 1990s controversies.

Now, I get that a lot of people aren’t on board with Barack Obama. Polls say about 35-40 percent are currently planning to vote for the other guy and another 10-15 percent don’t know what to make of Obama. But Lyons has become like that loud relative you have who sends out that famous slanderous e-mail forward about Obama and then sends it again with exclamation points when you refute the content. It seems every column of his that’s run in our paper includes rambling diatribes against Obama using talking points that are from the Clinton campaign circa late February. I don’t dislike all of what Lyons does, but here’s a guy who is taking the Clinton loss a little too hard and a little too personally. I realize that his perspective represents a genuine portion of the electorate, but his columns shouldn’t be the only point of view available to people in the western and central Mesabi Iron Range.

Frankly, Obama’s story of being raised by a single mom and grandparents and improbably rising up the political ladder through talent and sheer will would normally be a badge of honor on the Range. We’re a blue collar Democratic stronghold that rewards hard work and smarts. But the people here aren’t hearing the story. The only letters to the editor I’ve seen have had to do with marginal cable news issues (the “bitter” story, feminists should vote for McCain, etc.) instead of the big issues (war, economy, health care, etc.). And then the steady drumbeat of Gene Lyons. For as big as this election has been in the national news, there is an absolute vacuum of public discourse about it in my area. Obama’s decision not to run his introductory ads in this state probably presumes a margin of victory up here that is not yet secure.

The good news is that people around here really don’t like Tim Pawlenty. If McCain picks him, we can count on everyone coming home fast.

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