Wednesday morning digest: post debate edition

The Rochester Post Bulletin includes a telling paragraph in Local DFLers on debate: Obama connected well:

The IBM financial analyst was among an estimated 175 people who had gathered at the ballroom of the Marriott Hotel in downtown Rochester as part of a debate party sponsored by the Olmsted County DFL Party. There was no comparable event held by area Republicans.

And a second paragraph is just as interesting:

Rebecca Smith, co-chairwoman of the Olmsted County Republican Party, said she found the performances of both candidates to be uninspiring. She also said she didn't believe debates played a major role in determining the outcome of presidential races.

Such enthusiasm.

Walz's supporters are fired up, too, across the district. The New Ulm Journal reports in Residents speak out against privatizing Social Security:

In light of recent turmoil in the U.S. stock market, a trio of area Democrats, who are retirees, spoke against the privatization of Social Security at a press conference Tuesday morning.

Held in the basement of the New Ulm Public Library by the Tim Walz (D-Mankato) for U.S. Congress campaign, Linus Guggisberg, Sally Webster, and Mary Polta spoke.

They talked about why they opposed Republican Party Platform Section 1, Letter P (Page 2) that would allow all Americans to invest some or all of their Social Security payments.

All three said they thought privatizing Social Security was gambling with what they considered a safety net for the elderly. . . .

. . .On Monday, Walz met with and told Mankato seniors at Oak Terrace he was committed to honoring the promise of Social Security. Walz said he would strongly oppose any attempt to privatize it or gamble it away on the stock market.

"When my father died, my younger brother used Social Security survivor benefits to go to college. My mother used the same benefits to train as a nurse and re-enter the work force," said Walz.

A Mankato Free Press story, West teacher wins second award, reminds readers that Walz was the local Teacher of the Year in 2002.

The Owatonna People's Press presents Senator Coleman's and Congressman Walz's contrasting views on the bailout bill. Like Senator Klobuchar, Senator Coleman voted "Yes" on the bill, while Walz voted no each time the bill came up in the House. From the article:

U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, who voted against the bailout both times the bill passed through the House, said that there were indeed serious implications for Main Street.

“Behind the scenes, there was evidence that showed that (the credit markets were) starting to freeze up,” Walz said. “Some don’t believe it’s as bad as they said. I think it is, but that doesn’t warrant throwing all the rules out.”

Walz said he voted against the bill because he felt it did not provide enough safety for the tax payers, who are stuck footing the bill.

“I believe that getting these toxic debts out of the financial markets is the best thing to do. I hope it does work,” Walz said. “But if this doesn’t work the taxpayer is left holding the bag. We have no plan B. There’s nothing that says they wont come back and ask for more. Why would we say yes to that? ” . . .

Gun rights supporter Joel Rosenberg asks NRA in the bag for Republicans? Part of his answer:

It is, IMHO and all, an utterly fair set of recommendations, which will surely tick lots of people off.  The NRA tends to weight votes more strongly than words, and incumbent votes more strongly than previous position votes, which is why, for example, while in Minnesota's US House District 1, liberal Democrat Tim Walz gets an endorsement over Brian Davis.  .  .  .

The October 6th Meeting Minutes of the GAC Democrats includes this item:

Saturday, Oct. 18th – Tim Walz breakfast with former VP Mondale Nicollet County Historical Center off of 169    FREE!!!! 9am

We'll have more on that as details come our way. 

According to our sources, Brian Davis's television ads are supposed to start today in Rochester and Mankato. We can't wait to learn about how Tim Walz eats kittens.

Texas Congressman Chet Edwards will be in Rochester, Owatonna and Mankato today as the "Veterans for Walz" group is launched across the district.

That's as good as excuse as any for a little Texas blues from the under-appreciated Anson Funderburgh:

Photo: Walz talking to Southern Minnesotans about the bailout plan last Wednesday.

Comments

[Joel Rosenberg]

Thanks for the link. As somebody for whom gun/self-defense rights is a Big Deal, I think both principle and opportunism work in parallel on this stuff: it's important to recognize elected officials who do good on the issues, and when refereeing that, to put other issues aside.

Most of the folks in the RKBA community that I know are conservative or libertarians of some sort, but there's all sorts of folks involved in the issues on the left, too.

Worth remembering -- and I do keep reminding this to my conservative friends -- that we would not have passed carry reform in Minnesota, either time, without votes from liberal DFL Senators. (Which isn't to slight the conservative Republicans in both houses, who carried most of the weight, or the DFLers in the House who voted for the MCPPA, both in 2003 and 2005.)

Also worth noting that on a national level, if Al Gore had actually been the "poster boy for the NRA" that he'd been accused of by various folks on the left, from time to time, his margin of victory in Florida in 2000 would have been beyond the margin of (depending on your POV) error or cheating, and he'd never have gotten that Oscar.

Ollie says: For some of us, our civil liberties include everything in the Bill of Rights, including the Second Amendment.