Posted: 03/12/08 01:41
by Dave Mindeman
The Pioneer Press has decided to honor us with yet another editorial opinion on their view of politics in Minnesota. Here is an interesting excerpt:
It's unfortunate that someone with Ciresi's abilities left the race so early. It is a function of the role of the partisan endorsement process, in which political activists — those good and dedicated people who attend caucuses and conventions throughout the spring — have a great role in choosing the candidates we will see on the ballot.
On both ends of the political spectrum, this gives inordinate power to a subset of the truest believers at a stage in the game — like now — when most voters aren't paying attention. It sometimes produces candidates who cannot appeal to a broad spectrum of voters, as Franken, Coleman, Nelson-Pallmeyer or someone else will have to do to win the U.S. Senate seat
I take that as a chastisement of the process. It is the fault of those "good and dedicated people who attend caucuses and conventions" that Ciresi has "left the race so early".
Well, oh wise and knowledgable sages on the editorial board... where have you been over the past year? Did you cover Ciresi's campaign? Did you cover any campaign?
Maybe we, the "truest believers", should apologize for having all of this "inordinate power".
Except...how else do candidates get vetted? Are we to depend on the shrinking pages of our local dailies? The papers that have cut back staff so much that television listings have disappeared and non-essential columnists have been laid off?
Or how about the electorate? You know the ones who "aren't paying attention". The ones who stood by dumbfounded while their President marched us into a war that nobody wants.
The problem, oh great sages, is that somebody needs to pay attention all the time. The world is a 24 hour project and events that affect Senate races don't just start on Labor Day and end after November.
By the way, for those of you who haven't been paying attention... Norm Coleman has already voted about 3 different ways on waterboarding. Just thought you might want to know.
I never would take Ciresi as someone who would have given up early, but maybe his and his supporters' lack of visibility during the campaign affected people's attitudes toward Cirisi. Or, maybe Franken did that much better in getting himself out there and known.