Michael Lee's Train of Thought

I think he's really losing control of some of his supporters. Sad to see something like this in Minnesota though.



I suspect that when McCain loses -- and I hope and expect that he will -- that the knives will really be out in the Republican party. It's too early to say that, perhaps, and the few weeks that remain are several lifetimes in politics....but we'll see what happens.

Labels: minnesota, mnpolitics, politics

I've been regularly following fivethirtyeight.com to look at the trends of all of the political polls put together, rather than focusing on the poll of the day. Another good poll analysis site is the Princeton Election Consortium - and not just because they place Minnesota as having a very high voter influence, and so we're in a state where it is especially important to go out and vote in November.

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For me, one of the sadder things about the long primary campaign this spring was that as I was getting more, and more enthused about the Obama campaign, I was getting more turned off by the 2008 Clinton campaign.

This wasn't something that made me very happy -- especially since the Obama 2008 campaign reminds me so much of the Clinton 1992 campaign, where a young candidate unheard of a few years previously talks about the hope for the future after the disaster of a Bush presidency. There were a lot of people that compared Obama to a Kennedy -- but for me, the personal reminder was always Bill Clinton.

So it is nice to see stories like this fromClinton supporter Howard Wolfson -- recognizing all of the history of this year, and the impressive ability of Sen. Obama to rally 75,000 people.

That said, it is a difficult week to be partisan, when we've got another reminder that the weather doesn't have a political party. So this is a good week not to give money to a political campaign or party, or a week to protest or celebrate, but to give to a charity like the Red Cross.

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I was quoted in an article that just went up in the Star Tribune about my frustrations about my caucus experience.

I've been thinking about it some more today. I don't really want to reject all of the advantages of the caucus system. I like that we had the chance to get some face to face interaction with our local political leaders, and it was very hands-on democracy.

I know that a lot of people were frustrated that they couldn't really participate in what candidate the DFL will endorse for Senate this year. It's not just me -- I've overheard other people that felt frustrated that they weren't really able to be a part of that decision.

What I think might work is something that has both -- a primary for the state wide races like President, Senate, House of Representatives, and Governor. The caucus works as a chance to meet your neighbors, discuss the issues, and feed resolutions to the party at a grassroots level.

I don't really know the best solution -- and as you'd expect from a newspaper article you've got one main sentence pulled out of a couple of minute conversation that supported the story that he wanted to write, but I certainly think there is a better way.

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In theory, caucuses make some sense -- they're true citizen participation. But they're very, very frustrating. While we had a poll for the Presidential candidates, I'd like to have a straw poll that let you choose Senate candidate as well -- while we had Al Franken visit our caucus room, they only way that we could really "vote" for him is if we moved on to the March district caucus. And if you can't make that amount of commitment, you're effectively disenfranchised. And given the number of other people that were frustrated that they weren't able to express their opinion on the senate race tonight, I don't think I was alone.

It was extremely crowded -- the room was overflowing, and we left before the end, because I knew that I couldn't go on to the next level of caucusing.

I think the caucusing works relatively well for putting together party platforms and suggestions -- yes, you're going to have crazy or impractical resolutions, but if you let people have their say, you're going to get those. But for candidates for higher office -- I'm not so sure. I think it's too difficult to get a real representative choice there, and I'd rather see the primary have more say in this sort of situation.

I'm not quite sure the best way to fix that -- obviously, you'd have to change how the party makes decisions. And that would require getting it through the people that have the most interest in the current system.

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I get into a bit more of a political spin during this time of year, I suppose.

It was one of the longest lines I've ever seen:



But it's always exciting to see one of the best speakers out there





(pictures by Alicia LaMunion)

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Spotted on You Tube

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I figure someone's blog is much like the bumper sticker on a car. In many ways, it's the primary and/or caucus season that is more interesting to me -- because more often than not party affiliation will determine who I vote for in the November election. And for that not to be the case something really, really unusual has to have happened at the caucus level, and that's not in the cards this year.



And this is one of the more interesting caucus experiences with a Senate race as well, and so here's a little video from Al Franken showing how that part of the process will work here.

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I don't think this is a surprise to anyone, but Al Franken is in for the Senate. He grew up in the same town that I live in, so he's as home town as you get, really -- despite his previous entertainment career.

We're a state that elected Jesse Ventura and Paul Wellstone -- so of course Al has a chance. And at the very least, it'll make for a much more interesting campaign.

Labels: minnesota, mnpolitics, politics

I figure that if Al Franken is giving up his talk radio gig he's going to go for the US Senate here in Minnesota. He wouldn't be the strangest possible candidate for state wide office -- after all, we did elect an ex-wrestler and actor as Governor long before California brought in Arnold.

I figure it'll make for a very interesting campaign, at least. I saw Al Franken do a book reading a little over a year ago and I noticed then that despite his jokes, he was much more like someone who was looking at politics than as a comedian.

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