Polinaut: January 9, 2006 Archive

There's no crying in politics

Posted at 9:11 AM on January 9, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

Last week's food fight between consultant Blois Olson and Minnesota Democrats Exposed renewed the debate over the role of blogs in political coverage and in the dissemination of information in general. In short, it spawned a whole new round of "mainstream media is dead" articles and columns.

When you talk to someone about this concept, you hear over and over again one example: Powerline's exposing of Dan Rather. Folks, that was a year ago -- a lifetime in mainstream media -- and the blogosphere is going to have to do more than crank out a great story once every 12 months or so.

But in the drumbeat -- mostly in blogs -- of the death of mainstream media, a key point is missing. Even the bloggers don't really believe it. Why? Take MDE for example. Throughout last week -- one of the more strident weeks even by blogging standards -- MDE constantly cited mainstream media coverage of the spat as validation, and the vast majority of links are usually to mainstream media. Huh?

Secondly, if the political blogosphere is going to be nothing more than partisan hacking -- about as informative as a piece of campaign literature -- it's illogical to think it can change anyone's mind.
Do a lot of Democrats really visit Red State? Do a lot of Republicans really visit Daily Kos?

Perhaps what is most threatened in mainstream media isn't its bread-and-butter (coverage), but its editorial pages. Perhaps what is most threatened isn't mainstream media per se, it's civil discourse and intelligent exchanges of ideas.

On Saturday, the guy who writes the Blog House column in the Star Tribune had it right when he said "blogs should strive to be something more. The mainstream media get rapped on the knuckles a lot, and rightly so. This new forum for investigative journalism and political discourse should be utilized for those purposes, rather than partisan hatchet jobs."

Blogging is a medium still in its infancy. But that doesn't mean it can't grow up... just a bit.

Wouldn't this be a great day to start?

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What's up in Rochester?

Posted at 12:44 PM on January 9, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

I mentioned last week that there was a danger in Kelly Doran choosing now to announce his running mate, especially in the context of Mike Hatch and Tim Pawlenty rolling out a bunch of issues last week. But they got only a little traction (so far) with their announcements and here it is Monday, a relatively slow news day and Kelly Doran, who the average voter may never have heard of, is getting a fair degree of lead-story treatment for selecting a running mate, who they also may not have heard of.

Just chatting with some of the political gurus here (Mike Mulcahy, for one), Doran's choice seems to indicate he'll be forgoing the honoring of the state party endorsement and head for the September primary.

That also eliminates any possibility that his running mate, Sen. Sheila Kiscaden, can hold onto her District 30 seat should Doran's bid fail. The primary, of course, falls well after the state's filing deadline.

DFLers have done pretty well picking up and holding Senate seats lately, but getting Rochester's seat will be difficult. In the three-way race in 2002, Kiscaden bested Republican Lynn Zaffke by just 3 percent of the vote. DFLer Rich Wright was 23 percent off the pace.

Potential Republican candidates for the seat? How about former Rep. Bill Kuisle, who lost a close race to Andi Welti in 30B? Or former Rep. Carla Nelson, who lost out to Tina Liebling for the 30A House seat in 2004?

This election will be a good indication of what's going on politically in Rochester, where DFLers made remarkable strides in 2004.

As for DFL candidates. Kim Norton, who almost knocked off Fran Bradley in District 29 in 2004, would be a possibility. But Bradley is retiring and that seat is already available without having to move.

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More jockeying

Posted at 2:02 PM on January 9, 2006 by Bob Collins

State Sen. Sharon Marko, DFL-Cottage Grove, has announced she will not run for re-election this year. That gives some emphasis to the rumor that's been floating around that she has been encouraged by DFLers to run against 2nd District congressman John Kline. Coleen Rowley has run into criticism for her campaign against Kline.

Rep. Katie Sieben will run for Marko's seat.

Meanwhile, Shot in the Dark reports the Jim Knoblach campaign is claiming an endorsement from former 6th District congressional candidate Cheri Pierson Yecke.