Polinaut: June 9, 2006 Archive

Ready, set, type

Posted at 7:25 AM on June 9, 2006 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)

I'm not at the DFL convention so I won't be live blogging, per se, although I'll keep an ear to MPR's live feed (yes, this is where your membership dollars go) and I think I'm also responsible for cutting up the individual speeches. I'll post them in the accompanying stories, here and -- at some point -- on the individual candidate pages on the Campaign 2006 site.

I'm trying to find folks who are live blogging. So far the only ones I've found are DFL Senate, Joe Roelette Politics, and -- over the weekend -- Power Liberal. If you're blogging from the convention -- especially if you're a delegate, feel free to add a comment.

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Huh, what? (Open thread -- sort of)

Posted at 12:14 PM on June 9, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

I thought I was going to have a busy day today, but so far I've done little but heat up my lunch in the microwave and listen to the podium feed of the DFL convention.

And so far, the DFL convention has been the most interesting thing I've stumbled upon on Planet Politics today, which is unusual since the only thing I can remember from the last three hours was, "please remember to fill out the platform form with your #2 pencil in the white area only."

The DFL is clearly in the pocket of the #2 pencil lobby.

In other words, the thing so far has been a snore.

However, some nuggets that bloggers have found more interesting than pencils: Rambling from the North reports the DFL executive committee has been stacked in favor of Minneapolis. "This means that Minneapolis now officially runs the Democratic Party of Minnesota. That scares me. I was afraid for this party before, this scares me even more-so," the Rambler notes.

PICTURES

At the DFL convention in Rochester, gubernatorial candidate Becky Lourey talks with Kathy Hodges (left) and Patricia Puyear (right) from Alexandria.

Mike Hatch doing the Mike Hatch thing at the convention with Vince Carraher of Belle Plaine.

The DFL convention in Rochester opened on Friday with a salute to the flag. Or maybe they're saluting their candidate's signs. Man, there's a lot of signs there.

Brian Melendez's retort to Gov. Pawlenty's riff:

"I'm a God-fearing, America-loving, property-tax-paying
Minnesotan. I'm a law abiding citizen and I think the president
should be too. I read my Bible, but I don't think that makes me
better than anyone else, and I don't try to jam it down anyone's
throat. I read my Constitution, too, by the way. I like hunting, I
like fishing and I've got no problem with the Second Amendment. And
when you're having those nightmares about Democrats - I'm the
ringleader, and this ain't your daddy's DFL."

2:48 p.m. -- MN Publius says the Peace First folks are going to nominate Daryl Stanton as a Senate candidate. Stanton was the DFL sacrificial lamb against Jim Ramstad a few years ago. He's best known is this cubicle for not returning phone calls when he ran against Ramstad. Some campaign that was.

3:14 p.m. - Nope. Stanton wasn't the choice of the Peace First folks. Charlie Underwood is/was. He's an interesting guy who led the Kucinich Minnesota faction at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, and threatened not to make the Kerry endorsement unanimous. He eventually relented but not before delivering a speech to the Minnesota delegates to implore them not to forget his delegates' concerns -- Iraq, basically. They gave him a rousing cheer, then ignored his delegates' concerns.

3:55 -- Apparently the media in Rochester is making a big deal about Minnesota Democrats Exposed being in the hall (they were invited by the DFL) and are snapping pictures and interviewing the MDE writer/owner. They're not doing the same for the DFL bloggers there. Guess this is a day we won't be reading about the big media conspiracy against covering Republicans.

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Day 1 wrap

Posted at 4:28 PM on June 9, 2006 by Bob Collins

Klobuchar wins on the first ballot. Odd choice of music as she accepted the endorsement -- Springstein's Springsteen's "Born to Run," which I guess works if you don't go past the title. "I want to die with you, Wendy, on the streets tonight in an everlasting kiss." Ummmm....OK, I guess.

Klobuchar asking for the endorsement.

Here's some audio from the, well, you know. I'll add to it as I get it. It's all in RealPlayer format.

Charlie Underwood's Senate nomination speech.

Amy Klobuchar's speech before the convention.

Senate question-and-answer session

Klobuchar accepts endorsement.

The Dean Johnson riff (with badly timed loss of voice)

The whole Dean Johnson speech.

Klobuchar after getting the endorsement