I'm giving this advice to any candidate who wants it. Well, maybe not Republicans, so if you're a Republican, I'm about to prove everything you believe is wrong, so CLICK AWAY NOW!!.
They're gone? Good. OK, candidates, I don't care if you're the gubernatorial candidate I'm backing for endorsement or not because I just want to win the general election. Actually, you don't need to be running for governor, because I'd like to win right on down the ballot. I'm going to suggest a way of avoiding a Martha Coakley moment.
"Martha Coakley moment" is actually unfair, because Coakley was hardly the first candidate to have such a moment. These moments are probably unfair at all, but they hurt a candidate anyway, with fairness not entering into it. I'm referring to those moments when a candidates does something to indicate they don't get what life is like for most people, that they lack knowledge the common people pick up by osmosis if nothing else, and therefore can't represent them. These moments become iconic, and of great use for opponents.
In Coakley's case, it was her inability to not intuitively grasp why Curt Shilling wouldn't be a Yankee fan. You probably don't get that if you're not a baseball fan or not living in Massachusetts, but Coakley was living in Massachusetts. Related to being a senator? No. Shallow? You bet. Likely to hurt? Oh yes.
But perhaps, candidates, you're thinking she was unique, and it can't happen to you?
(As always, pithy and poignant, ericf -- thanks! - promoted by Joe Bodell)
Stadiums have become one of those issues that turns some of us into one-issue voters. "How nice, you ended poverty and cured cancer, but you voted for the stadium, so I'll never vote for you again!!" OK, I made up that quote, but I've run into that sentiment enough to claim it's less exaggerated than it might appear. I haven't seen that same level of one-issue voting on the pro-stadium side --- not a poll, just my observation.
Of course, the Vikings have been dreadful messengers for their own case. When the Metropolitan Sports Commission offered an extension of the Metrodome lease to buy some time, the Vikings acted like someone pissed in their Gatorade. They wouldn't even show up when the commission showed a design proposal to the press. How dare the commissioners try to do their jobs! Still, sometimes we have to look past the messenger and try to understand the message.
I have my theories on why people get worked up about public financing of stadiums, but I'm more concerned here with that the Vikings stadium is controversial than why; or at least my theories are too ill-formed for me to feel comfortable getting into anyone's psychology rather than the facts at hand --- aAnd the facts are not necessarily obvious, or at least their relevance and interpretation isn't necessarily clear. I make no pretense that building a new stadium for the Vikings is a George Tenet slam dunk -- or a real slam dunk (or even anything to do with basketball, in case someone was thinking I don't quite get what a "Viking" is). There is a however a case to be made for it, and a set of facts upon which a reasonable debate can be had.
Maybe its time we had a community suffering presence at the stadium tailgate parties. Obviously, making things look good for stadium goers is the highest priority. So if many of us went to the stadium tail gate part with cardboard signs for "jobs, health care, education, tuition, home, shelter", then maybe $700,000-$800,000 would get spent on real public needs.
TRACKING YOUR $: Hennepin Co. garbage burner
By: Nicole Muehlhausen, Web Producer
Hennepin County is about to spend nearly $2 million to make its downtown garbage burner look better and not send too much odor toward its new neighbor - the Minnesota Twins.
When the Twins stadium bill was passed by the legislature a few years ago, lawmakers were told the garbage burner next door wouldn't be a problem. But now Hennepin County is about to spend millions dollars to try to make sure it isn't a problem.
I think that giving Ziggy Wilf a new stadium for his football team is a great idea. We need to stimulate the economy and what better way than to give a gift to a billionaire. We progressives all know that building infrastructure is one of the best ways to get out of a Republican Depression. It's what we did back in the 1930s!
By gifting Wilf a stadium, thousands of non-union subcontractors will flood into the state. This will help the oil companies because they'll be driving to MN in their SUVs and pick-up trucks which get in the range of 8-12 mpg. It will help the property management companies who will rent apartments to the subcontractors for the year they live here. It will help the telecom companies as these subcontractors will be calling their families on their cells phones in the evenings. It will help the fast food industry because all these subcontractors won't cook for themselves and will eat at the fast food franchises near the construction sight and near their apartments.
It will help the bars in the surrounding area as the lonely subcontractors will need entertainment. Some subcontractors may meet fine-looking Minnesota women and move to Minnesota -- hey, that's a new taxpayer. It will help the prostitution rings as subcontractors will need lovin' between occasional trips home to see the wife and kids. It will help the insurance companies because of all the injuries on the job and STDs the subcontractors will pick up from the unprotected sex they'll having here in Minnesota.
