McCain tackles one of the “third rails”

A while back, Brother Jon started a great conversation about the “third rails” of American politics, those topics that apparently only the ballsiest or the stupidest politicians will take on with any honesty or significance.
On Monday in Denver, Senator McCain (the next president of the United States? — ready…fight!) took on the third rail of [...]

Does the president need to be a computer user?

An interesting conversation has been taking place over at the Web Strategy blog, written by Jeremiah Owyang, a social computing analyst at Forrester Research. He asks if the president needs to know how to use a computer and the Web to do his or her job effectively.
The question was prompted by John McCain’s admission that [...]

The Third Rails of American Politics

Whew, we’ve had a busy couple weeks here at the Crowd.  Lots of good posts and some even better comments. Thank you one and all for making the SRC worth visiting - as it turns out Voltaire didn’t say, “Some of you are whacked but I’m totally behind your right to say any crazy thing [...]

Pawlenty Avoids the Cattle Call

“After twelve years in the minor leagues, I don’t try out,” says Crash Davis to Annie Savoy in Bull Durham.
That’s pretty good advice for front-leading VP candidates as well and explains why neither Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty or Mike Huckabee made it to Senator McCain’s ribfest this weekend (yes, yes, yes, I know they both [...]

Minnesota’s Blog Scene Gets NYT Coverage

The New York Times has an interesting look at the impact it believes Minnesota’s bloggers are having on our State’s political landscape. The article focuses mostly on the role Minnesota Democrats Exposed is playing in the Senate race, but also mentions True North, Truth vs. The Machine, MNPublius and the Minnesota Campaign Report.
- Austin

SNL Captures the Dems’ Distress

Saturday Night Live is often at its best when it makes us a bit uncomfortable and Amy Poehler’s hilarious riff Saturday night on the current focus of Democratic worry is a classic in this genre.  In a single 5-minute skit, she gives voice to the fears that we all tap-dance around in an effort to [...]

Non-verbal Trumps the Verbal — Bill Down, Hillary Up

While Hillary Clinton gave her victory speech in Indiana, Bill was over her right shoulder looking grim. She was saying she was going on, that her Indiana victory broke the tie between Pennsylvania and North Carolina, that she was going to win the White House.
But when verbal and non-verbal messages are in conflict — [...]

“Come Together. Right Now. Over Me.”

This re-punctuated Beatles lyric pretty much sums up the wishes of any number of Democrats who find the whole nomination process at little too Hobbesian - nasty, brutish, and - in this instance - long. What we Dems need, the thinking goes, is “this thing settled” before we so damage the eventual nominee that [...]

If You’re Not Outraged….

Doug Stone’s “Where’s the outrage?” posting on MinnPost today, coupled with Dr. Loveland’s musing on the state of the newspaper industry, has put me in a bit of a grumpy mood this afternoon. If an article as well-researched and well-placed as the New York Times’ analysis of the Pentagon’s use of retired military officers [...]