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Graphic designers lining up with Obama
This might be for strung out political junkies like me more so than “normal human beings,” but check out this story about Barack Obama’s unprecedented use of branding and design in his campaign. A graphic designer tells an interviewer how Obama’s font-choice represents a much larger future trend in political branding. Yes, it’s a story…
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Excelsior’s new strategy?
Excelsior Energy is running large, color ads in the Mesabi Daily News thanking the Iron Range for all its support for their boondoggle coal gas power plant called the Mesaba Energy Project. Of course, the lobbyist-run company’s most important supporters are the ones on their political contributions list, but I suppose the sentiment is nice.…
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Clinton and Iraq: a metaphor?
Frank Rich from the New York Times wrote a great column yesterday (“The Audacity of Hopelessness“) detailing the logical fallacies about Hillary Clinton’s current campaign strategy as she makes her final push for Ohio and Texas. It’s not just that her candidacy’s central premise — the priceless value of “experience” — was fatally poisoned from…
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Political tidbits
I was swamped yesterday and we’re saying a lot of prayers for my grandmother who is in the hospital in very serious condition. Anyway, I didn’t get to some interesting tidbits I found over at www.mnblue.com, a progressive political blog of which I am a contributor. As the MNBlue’s “token Iron Ranger,” I had to…
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The world of water cooler politics is flat, too
President Bush recently visited Tanzania, one of the few nations in the world where he enjoys an approval rating above 50 percent. Despite Bush’s relative popularity, questions about Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign to become Bush’s successor dominated the visit, according to a Sheryl Gay Stolberg story from last Sunday’s New York Times. Outside of town,…
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Franken questions coal gas plant in the Bemidji Pioneer
Al Franken, DFL U.S. Senate candidate from Minnesota, gave an interesting interview to the Bemidji Pioneer. (No, Bemidji is not on the Iron Range but many of our people go to college and drink a lot of beer there, so it is a city of note). Essentially, Franken was stressing his support of basic northern…
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Bonding bill nothing to snooze over
The chatter I keep hearing from folks who attend lots of under-reported public meetings is that the $67 million bonding request to fund infrastructure for the Minnesota Steel plant near Nashwauk is vital to the project’s viability. In quiet rail authority and city meetings, company representatives and city officials communicating with them say that the…
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Obama and the Iron Range
This post is shared with my friends at www.mnblue.com, a progressive Minnesota political blog. I’ve heard that some Range leaders are nervous that Sen. Barack Obama’s underperformance in central Range precincts like Hibbing and Chisholm despite his massive statewide win in the caucuses. (Sen. Hillary Clinton carried those core Range towns about 60/40; Obama carried…
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Coleman KAXE interview reveals northern strategy, foretells battle over coal gas boondoggle
U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman gave an interview to Scott Hall on the KAXE morning show today in which he covered a broad range of issues. KAXE is a unique and popular independent public radio station serving most of northern Minnesota. The most interesting details came near the end after Scott asked his final question, and…
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250 MW of clean energy coming downstream
Maybe some folks think I’m out to choke out the upper Midwest’s power supply after last week’s column in which I once again criticize the Mesaba Energy Project, that boondoggle coal gas power plant pushed by lobbyists here on the Iron Range. Not so, my business friends. In fact, my arguments fall squarely in line…
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Pawlenty’s (literally) bumpy road to the vice presidency
(This post might have been timely if I had actually finished it before my crazy Friday schedule. Hell, I’ll just post it now anyway). By now many have heard the frequent speculation over whether Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty will be John McCain’s running mate now that McCain has essentially secured the Republican nomination. McCain has…
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Health care tour comes to Hibbing today
State Rep. Carolyn Laine, an Iron Range native, will be in Hibbing today with other legislators to tout a bill for universal health care that she and others will be proposing this session. Those interested in the health care debate should check it out. I would go if it weren’t cross-scheduled with the dinnertime insanity…
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Super Tuesday on the Iron Range
Nothing knocks over a mountain in one night. But when you combine wind and water and the correct amount of time, the mountain is destined to fall. That’s how I feel about the status of my Democratic party this morning. Barack Obama was down by a million a few months ago and now he’s running…
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Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
I’ve already implored everyone to get out to caucuses tonight, so it’s in your hands now. You have a few more hours to vote in the MinnesotaBrown online poll predicting who will win the Minnesota DFL and Republican caucuses tonight. Right now it looks like the consensus is Obama and McCain. We’ll know soon enough.…
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Just when things were looking up …
In class Monday I was telling my students how important it was to get out to the caucuses Tuesday night. I wasn’t pitching for my candidate, just telling them that they should go to the party caucus of their choice to have a say in who the major party presidential nominees would be in this…