Media Misses Health Trend Story Behind Rating

We’re number six! We’re number six!
It’s not exactly the cheer proud Minnesotans are accustomed to when it comes to health. After all, for four years in a row we were the number one healthiest state in the nation, according to the United Health Foundation. Health has always been one of [...]

The End of Unallot?

Five months ago, we ruminated about “Unallot,” the magical fiscal fiefdom created by Governor Tim Pawlenty.

“Don’t let it be forgot
That once there was a spot,
For one brief, shining moment
That was known as Unallot.”
In the magical kingdom of Unallot, a Governor who feigns surprise about huge deficits that have been forecasted and publicly discussed for [...]

Pawlenty’s Secret Weapon in Iowa

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has been busy preening Presidential in Iowa, which raises an interesting question: Where will his breakthrough political moment come in the Hawkeye State?
Will Governor Pawlenty’s breakthrough come during a spellbinding address to the Muscatine County Republican Women’s Club meeting? Will it come with a well-timed anti-evolution zinger at the [...]

(Political) Climate Change

Governor Pawlenty formed the Minnesota Climate Change Advisory Group to find solutions to address the “profound impact of global warming.” Presidential candidate Pawlenty has ignored the group’s recommendations.
Governor Pawlenty launched the Midwest Governor’s Climate Change initiative. Presidential candidate Pawlenty has come out against the initiative.
Governor Pawlenty had been an aggressive advocate for a [...]

No Peace. No Prosperity. No Pawlenty.

Many political scientists maintain that peace and prosperity are among the most reliable predictors of presidential electoral success.
At this stage, America in the Obama era has neither. It has the highest unemployment in a quarter century and is embroiled in two bloody, complex and unpopular foreign wars. Bad news, Barack.
So with all [...]

Satirical Seer

Yesterday, Governor Pawlenty said “thanks but no thanks” to that bridge to economic recovery.
Our state and national economies are in deep doo-doo. The private sector is not stimulating the economy with private investment and consumption, because of lack of consumer confidence and credit. At the same time, state governments aren’t able [...]

Blues’ Clues

It looks as if the security perimeter around next week’s Republican National Convention (RNC) is going to make St. Paul’s Excel Energy Center about as publicly accessible as China’s Forbidden City during the Ming Dynasty.
So how are blue bywatchers to know when the Red Man Group arrives in our fair city? A [...]

Pawlenty Ambitious, “But Is He Ready To Lead?”

Senator McCain’s last several ads have asked a singular question, “Barack Obama may be The One, but is he ready to lead?”
As Governor Tim Pawlenty prepares to be anointed The One McCain chooses as his Vice Presidential running mate, it is only fair that Senator McCain and the press corps ask the same question about [...]

What’s worse: Budget cuts or face-saving spending

A line in this morning’s post from Joe Bodell at the Minnesota Campaign Report struck me. At the end of a write-up about how Gov. Pawlenty’s vetoes of bonding bill line-items really seem to have stuck it to the capital city, Bodell says:
Perhaps it’s simply a matter of geography: since the I-35 bridge collapse happened [...]

Republicans Seize Educable Moment

The Minnesota Republican Party was savvy to immediately launch a television ad blistering the transportation tax increase passed by a bipartisan super-majority in the Legislature.

It’s not a particularly good ad. It looks like a thousand other doomsday political attack ads, and its glum tone is so over-the-top that many [...]