What the Huck!? (updated)

I've been running silent here for a while lately because of some personal life things (don't worry nothing bad) that I will blog about Sunday. However for the moment I can't let this one slide.

"That was Barack Obama, he just tripped off a chair, he's getting ready to speak," said the former Arkansas governor, to audience laughter. "Somebody aimed a gun at him and he dove for the floor."

That was former Arkansas governor and Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee speaking to the NRA this morning. He was making a joke about Senator Obama being shot at!

Now as far as republicans go, I truly do like governor Huckabee; I've always thought he was a good sinscere man and was attempting to pull his party in the right direction on a lot of issues. But I just don't know what to make of this. I would like to think his intent was to make light of how liberals are uncomfortable around guns and don't understand gun people. If that was the case he chose his words poorly and should apologize immediately. On the other hand, if seriously thought it was funny to talk about Killing Senator Obama. The preacher man really needs to go and re read his bible and his supporters may want to re think what kind of person they are really behind.

Update: So it has been brought to my attention that no one in the NRA crowd was laughing at this.

Hearing a loud noise and interrupting his speech, Huckabee said: "That was Barack Obama. He just tripped off a chair. He's getting ready to speak and somebody aimed a gun at him and he — he dove for the floor."

There were only a few murmurs in the crowd after the remark.

It sounds like the gun crowd has had enough of America Gone off the tracks as well. Our message of unity and getting back in the right direction is getting heard.

Shooter!

So i'm going to start something new here. I like music, specifically a lot of diverse music. So every week i'm going to start show casing some music I like here on the blog. To start things off right, I've got with the bad ass himself Shooter Jennings!

It's over

After Tuesdays results in North Carolina and Indiana the narrative of this campaign has become what we have known for a long time. Barack Obama is now the Democratic Party's nominee for President. Hillary's game changer in North Carolina led to African Americans voting for Obama by a margin of 92-6. This is a huge breakdown. Jesse Jackson never had numbers like that, neither did Shirley Chisholm. Barack Obama has come out and done the impossible. He has built up a coalition of voters and came away with the nomination. Certainly he was aided by the mistakes of Clinton's campaign, and don't get me wrong Mark Penn made some doozies. I think the deciding factor in the race was the energy of the Obama staff and volunteers. They knocked on more doors, made more calls, and just asked for more people to vote him. A lot of politicians have came about saying the exact same things that Obama has and each and every one of them George McGovern, Jesse Jackson, Gary Hart, Howard Dean either burned out or were never materialized. Barack Obama was able to create the political strength to follow through with what he said.

Barack Obama's win says a little about how good his team is and a lot about how good progressives are getting. After a string of bitter losses, an unjust and immoral war, and heartbreak of 2004 we've finally put it together that we need more than being right on our side. So we read books, attended Camp Wellstone, and got more involved. Obama's win is proof that progressives are now stepping up and willing to do the heavy lifting it takes to win back our country. Congradulations to all of us, lets keep the train going through November!

Implications

Yesterday voters in the Baton Rouge area had the privilege to elect a new congressman. Congressman Richard Baker decided to resign in order to take a private sector job. Democratic state rep Dan Crazyoux defeated former state rep Woody Jenkins by around three thousand votes. The Louisiana 6th district rates an R +6.5 by CQ politics. The race was another proxy war between the NRCC and the DCCC. Each side dumped a large sum of money into the district. The resulting democratic win has some major implications for rest of the election season.

First off this does not bode well for the NRCC and the republican party. This is the second special election this year in equally conservative districts where a democrat has won. The DCCC has a tremendous advantage in cash on hand. There has also been a large number of GOP retirements so far in this election cycle. With a second democrat winning a special election in a safe republican district one can assume that this will inspire more republicans to seek retirement rather than deal with a rough reelection campaign.

Secondly this election will have implications in the presidential race. The strategy of the republicans and their 527s was to attack Crazyoux by attacking Barack Obama. Their hope was to make Crazyoux unelectable by tagging him with Obama's baggage. The strategy didn't work. Since the nomination is going to be decided by super delegates this could help with their decision. The first thing that most of these supers are concerned with first and foremost is keeping themselves safe. So they are going to want to vote for someone that has coattails and can help them out as well. The attacks on Obama failing demonstrate that he does have coattails, and this could help prove that he would be the stronger candidate for down ticket races.

Frank Moe out!

I was really surprised to see this one. Frank Moe announced yesterday at the SD-04 nominating convention that he would not seek a third term in the Minnesota House. I had met Frank once before at the 06 CD convention and he's a very friend bright guy. I think the Legislature is going to really miss him.

Unfortunately this also puts the DFL in a bit of a bind. 4A is a swing district that until 2004 was held by a conservative republican. With Frank in the seat we were going to hold it, but now this is one that is very much in play this year. We are going to need to dig up a candidate and fast.

Part 2...Sigh

Speaking of Hillary speaking like a republican, she tossed out this little gem at a fundraiser the other day.

Moveon.org endorsed [Sen. Barack Obama] -- which is like a gusher of money that never seems to slow down," Clinton said to a meeting of donors. "We have been less successful in caucuses because it brings out the activist base of the Democratic Party. MoveOn didn't even want us to go into Afghanistan. I mean, that's what we're dealing with. And you know they turn out in great numbers. And they are very driven by their view of our positions, and It's primarily national security and foreign policy that drives them. I don't agree with them. They know I don't agree with them. So they flood into these caucuses and dominate them and really intimidate people who actually show up to support me."

Now first off it should be clear that MoveOn was in not opposed to the our actions in Afghanistan. They were however vehemently opposed to the war in Iraq. You know that trillion dollar boondoggle that Hillary is still proud to have voted for.

Secondly, the Democratic Activists that she is so condescendingly derides are the ones that go out and win us our elections. They make the phone calls, knock on the doors, and put up the lawn signs that give us the edge. Treating them like a personal enemy is just stupid politics. I think we need to ask right now just what the hell is her plan for winning the general election? Or is she just going to assume that she'll win it since her last name is Clinton? That's really worked for her so will in the nomination fight. Who would she attack next Swing voters? Students? Poor People, the state of Colorado?

Also as a historical footnote it should be remembered that MoveOn.org was founded in 1998 as a response to the republican impeachment of her husband.

Nastiness

The longer our primary lasts the more negative it is becoming. Both campaigns are smart and aren't doing a whole lot of it their selves. So what we are witnessing is a proxy pie fight being waged by supporters and surrogates of the two campaigns. This is really nothing too surprising. Negative campaigning works. It is a part of the way the game is played. In and of it self this is not an especially bad thing. First off it proves that a candidate doesn't have a glass jaw and can take the hit. Secondly it shows a campaigns judgment. Do they know when to and how throw a punch. That being said this type of politics is only good to a point. We have reached that point.

A lot of Obama's backers and some surrogates have lately been speaking in terms of Hillary's campaign behaving like a republican. Now this is a fairly strong accusation for the Obama campaign to make. But it's unfortunate to say that of late judging by her behavior I think it's an accurate one. The main problem as I see it is her personal sense of entitlement. Hillary and her people truly believe that the nomination (and presidency) are her divine right. This has led to her resorting to such fundamental dishonestly. It is clear that she believes in herself more than the blue collar voters, Hispanics, women, or [insert group here] that she allegedly cares about.

Her latest method is what is really bothering me. First her donors tried to hold the DCCC hostage after Speaker Pelosi said that the super delegates should not back someone who is the looser of the over all popular vote. Yesterday Howard Dean publicly said to the party super delegates that they need to hurry up and end this. Now Hillary's same group of donors are threatening to stop funding the DNC because of this.

Will Hillary govern the same way she campaigns? Will she fall back on a group of the influential power elites? So I must say about the Republican analogy, if the shoe fits....

Interesting endorsement for Obama

The Philly Daily News has officially endorsed Barack Obama, This is not surprising. Major metropolitan newspapers LA to Atlanta to Seattle have all endorsed him. What makes this one different is how they frame their rationale. While leadership and judgment have been Obama's hallmarks of support and when you cut down to it his entire reason for running. The Philly Daily News goes out on a limb and says that it all comes down to 9/11

This is a campaign that really began six years ago, on Sept. 11, 2001. Not only was the U.S. attacked and seriously wounded, it did not bounce back the way "the land of the free and home of the brave" should have. In fact, it still suffers from post-traumatic stress.

That day and its aftermath cried out for a revolution of values: a clear-eyed shared vision, a cooperative effort, a unified purpose. It cried out for a recognition that conventional warfare and conventional responses to domestic challenges in an era of globalization were not enough.

That cry was not answered.

Instead, the Bush administration embarked on an unconscionable plan to exploit the fear we all felt that day for political gain. It lied us into a disastrous war in Iraq, a staggering, record deficit at home, a weakening of the constitutional structure on which the country rests, and poisonous lines of division among Americans. It led us to a place where 81 percent of Americans say we're on the wrong track.

The entire article is a good read. I think it's really refreshing for someone in the media using 9/11 for more than a political football. It is indeed a teachable moment and one that we desperatly need to learn from.

On Superdelegates

Superdelegates have been a big point of controversy throughout the party this year. Nationally there is Hillary's strategy of trying to convince the Superdelegates to overturn the popular vote. Locally the main reason that the CD 3 convention took 9 ballots was that while Ashwin was running away with the popular vote the Superdelegates broke for Bonoff by a margin of 15-2.5.

The entire justification for Superdelegates existing is that they can fix things when the nomination process get messed up beyond belief. In practice what we're seeing is that the Superdelegates are putting themselves ahead of the party and ahead of what's best for essentially everyone else. Last weekend the CD 3 supers were the last ones to break away from Bonoff. I think this whole system needs to be scrapped. The primaries are showing that the voters are able to make up their minds well enough on their own. Having super delegates is just undemocratic and undercuts our ability to field strong candidates.

Madia!

I am proud to report that I have seen the future of Minnesota and his name is Ashwin Madia. Last weekend I was invited by my friend Chris to come down to Plymouth and watch the convention. I wasn't quite sure what to except; I certainly liked what I had heard about Ashwin, but I still had no experience with him.

The first impression that his campaign made on me was that all of his people were truly excited to be there and happy about it. Ash gave a fantastic convention speech. His primary focus throughout the speech was on optimism and the overall potential that we have. This is really the brand of politics that I like and believe that most voters respond positively to. He also brought up the issue of civil liberties and the patriot act and how he supports the constitution. Issues like this aren't always very politically salient at best voters don't get it and at worst you get beat up for it.

The convention itself also had a lot more drama than was expected. Going into it Joe Bodel had the delegate count at Ash 4 votes away from winning on the first ballot. The first ballot came in at 82.5 to 70 a sizable lead but a ways from the 60 percent threshold. The two sides kept up their support through the first 6 ballots and it wasn't until the seventh that Ash got any movement. Under this pressure the campaign was fine everyone was still confident and in control. No body panicked or resorted to cheap negative attacks.

So now the democrats have a candidate in the third that can really do something amazing. Dwight Eisenhower was president the last time a democrat represented the third and now we are going to send a 30 year old ex marine with one of the sharpest minds in the state to Washington. I'm going to go out on a limb here and perdict that we're going to be seeing a lot more of this man down the line.

Movement in ND?

A hallmark of any presidential year is the electoral math. Now many blogs are putting up their own electoral vote counters tracking the race. Another modern fixture of this is that all the big websites have interactive graphics showing which states are going democrat and which republican, and naturally since there is no democratic nominee yet there are two separate competing sets of maps.

The fact that makes all of this interesting and worth writing about is that if you would take a look at the Obama McCain map you might see something very strange. I say might because after all North Dakota isn't the kind of place that naturally gets a lot of attention. However if you look at it you 'll see clear as day that Barack Obama is defeating John McCain.

North Dakota is a state that has been dealing with hard times for quite a while now. Agriculture is in decline as a way of making their living, they have struggled to develop other industry to take it's place, and the state has been hit rather hard by the brain drain. The young and educated leave for Minnesota, Colorado, and other thriving states. They are facing population declines and a very uncertain future as a state. It has gotten to the point where one of the state's US Senators has proposed a 21st century homestead act to attract new residents to the state. Typically the state votes very conservatively, having last voted democrat in the 1964 LBJ landslide (and before that not since the great depression). So this brings about the question of why Obama?

The first and easiest explanation is the enthusiasm gap. Barack Obama was in Grand Forks a couple weeks ago for a rally at the state democratic convention and was greeted by a crowd of 17,000 people while on the other hand the republican state convention struggled to fill a hotel meeting space. This is a bad time to be a republican anywhere so it would make sense that their troubles would carry out to ND.

However I think there is more to the explanation then that. At it's center it is about North Dakota's hard times and Obama's style and message. The appeal of Obama's message is that it impels people towards both optimism as well as feeling ownership in society. North Dakota is the kind of place that really needs to hear this kind of Optimism. When you look at public policy there wouldn't be much of any difference between Obama and Hillary and what they do for the state. Yet Hillary is still getting trounced. Another part of the equation could be the issue of character. It seems like there are a lot of people out there that really don't like McCain and don't trust him but if the look across the ballot and see the same thing if not someone worse looking back at them they'll suck it up and vote for McCain. However if the other option seems like something different and a step up in terms of character they appear willing to give it a shot.

Mr Governor, You fail us once again.

Governor Pawlenty was busy today. He went out and line item vetoed a bunch of spending proposals out of the bonding bill claiming that it was too big and had the wrong priorities.

• $70 million for the Central Corridor light rail line between Minneapolis and St. Paul
• $11 million for the St. Paul’s Como Zoo.
• $5 million for St. Paul’s Asian Pacific Cultural Center.
• Two University of Minnesota projects -- $24 million for a new Bell Museum of Natural History and $2 million for classroom renovations in Crookston, Duluth, Morris and the Twin Cities
• $16 million for the Red Lake school district
• $46.7 million work of MnSCU project, including $13 million for North Hennepin Technical College's Center for Business and Technology and $11 million to Lake Superior Community and Technical College's health and science center.
• $7.7 million worth of amateur sports center projects, including money for the National Sports Center in Blaine, the National Volleyball Center in Rochester and the Northwest regional Sports Center in Moorhead.
• $2 million each for St. Paul's Union Depot, $2 million to replace the Cedar Avenue bridge and $2 million for the National Great River Park along the Mississippi River in St. Paul.
• $4 million in planning money for a high-speed rail line between St. Paul and Chicago and other projects.

Thoughts:
First off as a U of MN Morris student i'm naturally upset that we've been line itemed out once again out here.

I find his use of the phrase wrong priorities to be interesting. The main things that he is cutting are education and transportations. So this forces me to ask what are the right priorities?

• A generation of ignorant unemployable Minnesotans?
• Being caught unprepared for future medical emergencies?
• More people dying when the bridge they happen to be driving on falls apart?
• Destroying the state environment by not embracing mass transit?

It is painfully clear to me that our governor's main priority is pulling the ladder up after him so no one else in this state my be fortunate enough to share in the prosperity that he has gained through public education and a strong social infrastructure. The only other thing I can say is just try and run for a third term now!

Final Thought: What the hell does Rochester need National Volleyball center for? I with the heartless bastard on that one.

my triumphant return

Great news friends. I am in fact back on here. I was first out of commission on spring break then spending my time getting back into the swing of things here. Now i'll get right back into posting like before.

In news Amy Klobuchar is endorsing Barack Obama today. Obama won 2/3 of the vote in the MN caucus so I don't think the Hillary people were really holding their breath on this one. The timing about it is interesting though. It's the first business day after senator Casey of PA announced his endorsement. I'm wondering whether this is the start of a new string of endorsements being announced by the Obama campaign. The day of the Texas and Ohio primaries there was a rumor circulating the blogs that the Obama campaign was sitting on a list of 50 endorsements that they were about to roll out. There's been a handful of super delegate endorsements for him but not in the numbers that were rumored. Now with Richardson, Casey, and Klobuchar all within a week and a half it's looking like the campaign is starting to roll out some big guns.

All wrapped up (almost)

The rest of the CD 3 senate districts have had their conventions now, and it appears that Ashwin Madia has an insurmountable lead in the delegate count. While it's true that anything could still happen. Madia's pledged delegate lead is just short of the 60% threashhold needed for an endorsement. He could win this on the first ballot.

Total Elected Delegates

Bonoff - 48
Madia - 84.5
Uncommitted - 7

convention recap

Yesterday morning was my county convention. The first thing I noticed was that the turnout was twice what it was in 2006 where we set a record. This is showing that democrats everywhere are truly fired up and ready to go. Everyone seems not just excited about our candidates and potential, but willing to invest in their time and effort to make it happen to.

I was elected as an alternate to the state convention which should be a good time. I doubt much will go down it will be interesting to see who is working the crowds in preperation of a governor's race.