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A good debate
Taegan Goddard, one of my favorite nonpartisan political analysts, put together a nice roundup of opinions on the debate last night. In general, its seen as a tie by the professionals, a debate in which both men played to their strengths. Most of the pundits also saw the performance as a good debate, one that…
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The winner of the debate is …
… the Kansas City Royals? What the hell! OK, Twins defeat aside (It’s OK, Chicago is losing, too) we had a debate tonight. Your preferred talking heads will surely be able to offer their opinions, but the best consensus seems to be that this was a tie. Obama did better in grabbing hold of the…
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Debate is on
It’s on. What’s the over under on the first candidate to juxtapose the phrase “Wall Street” with the phrase “Main Street” tonight? I’ll give odds it’s McCain in the second question, but that Obama says it 78 times before the night is out. Also, I’ll take guesses on the most important world issue that won’t…
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Following up on Otto visit to Hibbing for Obama press event
The Hibbing Daily Tribune runs this story by Kelly Grinsteinner in today’s edition about yesterday’s Rebecca Otto press conference for the Obama campaign in Hibbing. The gist of the message was that money spent rebuilding Iraq could be spent rebuilding infrastructure in towns like Hibbing or others across the Iron Range. Related posts: No related…
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‘Cost of War’ press event highlights strong arguments for the Iron Range; too bad McGimmick gummed up the TV
Though the Wednesday night news cycle ended up being dominated by John McCain’s decision to suspend his campaign to “focus on the economic crisis” (adding an element of desperation to the chum-filled news waters), the Barack Obama campaign held an Iron Range press conference with mayors and elected officials Wednesday to talk about the cost…
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Range ‘Cost of War’ event aims to show how the big picture affects small towns, Iron Range
At 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, the Obama campaign is organizing a “Local Cost of War” press conference at the Howard Street Barack Obama/DFL headquarters in downtown Hibbing in the heart of the Iron Range. The event features State Auditor Rebecca Otto and several Iron Range and other small town elected officials. They will demonstrate the cost…
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Barkely a factor, or maybe not, but probably for sure
It’s been a mixed day for Independence Party Senate candidate Dean Barkley. The Wall Street Journal profiled him and his potential impact on the race this morning, but this afternoon a Rasmussen Poll in Minnesota puts him down around 3 percent support (with a statistical tie up top between Norm Coleman and Al Franken). I…
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Racial views bubble up in national poll
Yahoo has this story on how racial views by some white Democrats could influence the national election. Anecdotal application of this national poll could also be made here on the Iron Range or other isolated areas without much racial diversity. Not a happy story, but there it is. I’m not going to obsess about this…
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The hazards of an ownership society
Most of you know I write this blog alone and that, politically, I align with the Democrats. That’s enough for good ol’ MinnesotaBrown to be declared a “liberal blog.” But I do, on occasion, deliberately expose myself to conservative ideas to see what’s going on on the other end of the spectrum. Today I’m highlighting…
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More sportsman shenanigans
The Mesabi Daily News ran a story today about the new Iron Range group “Sportsmen for Obama” led by my state senator, Tom Saxhaug (DFL-Grand Rapids). This is in response to the recent “Sportsmen for McCain” group that formed to spread fear that Obama would take away our guns (he won’t). Tomorrow, a press conference…
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Debate success is only way out of the fog
This New York Times story from yesterday tells of the fog of the 24 hour modern news cycle. With so much information being pumped into the political debate at all times, it is virtually impossible to control a message outside of an accompanying major news event. By and large, people are tuning out political messages…
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Hey … this bank stuff sounds kinda important
Hey, everybody! The banks are failing. Lots of them. OK, some of them aren’t “failing,” they’re “restructuring.” Ever build something that fell apart? You could restructure it, but it still failed. Not to worry. Historically, massive national bank failures are only followed by long periods of crippling economic decline some of the time. And hey,…
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Dispatch from Heartland Tour’s Range stop
The Barack Obama “Heartland for Change” tour wraps up today with events in Duluth. I attended the Hibbing stop at Grandma’s Restaurant. I have to declare the event a success, but that’s mostly because it combined my great loves: politics and drinking beer when the sun is up. The Iron Range swing of the tour…
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Heartland tour reaches Range on Friday
Though today the campaign goes silent in honor of the 9/11 victims, Friday brings the Range leg of the Barack Obama “Heartland for Change” tour. This is where the campaign sends an RV with local Democrats and campaign leaders to listen to folks all over Minnesota. The tour starts in Ely Friday morning at 9:30…
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Ferguson unites common sense and patriotism in election rant
This has been going around a lot today. I even saw it on “Good Morning America.” Comedian Craig Ferguson expresses in an eight minute, entirely nonpartisan monologue how I feel about the state of American politics today. It’s funny, it’s angry, it’s inspiring and it’s spot on. Why do we rely on comedians to say…