Super Duper Special Tuesday!
Go out and caucus! Tomorrow (Tuesday, March 2nd 2004) precinct caucuses are held here in Minnesota. If you don't know where to find your caucus you can just click the Minnesota DFL link. The DFL homepage has a tool where you type in your address and it tells you where to go. It starts at 7:00pm, but you need to get there about 6:30 to register. Caucuses will hold a presidential preference vote. That vote will help determine which candidate will run against Bush in November.
In other news... the Star Tribune reported a very interesting story about voter decision making. Although, there is one small problem with it. It argues that Democratic voters aren't necessarily looking for the candidate that would most likely beat George W. Apparently people are actually voting for the candidate that best represents their view on the issues. Exit polls show that voters who believe that the economy is the most important issue favor Edwards. They also state that among issue oriented votes, Kerry doesn't do well. After all that info telling us people want a candidate based on issues... the story ends with this sentence. "Among those who said they voted primarily on the basis of which candidate could beat Bush, Kerry defeated Edwards by 31 percentage points, which you could say is why Kerry won Wisconsin." So Kerry doesn't do well on the issues, and people want an issues candidate... so they vote for Kerry??? I know. I am confused too. Must have been a slow news day at the Strib.
Addressing the Richard Perle resignation, I must say I am somewhat surprised. Officials have claimed that he resigned because he did not want the Bush administration to be criticized for his personal views on foreign policy (such as wanting to invade every middle-eastern country not named Israel). But I wouldn't be surprised if he was forced out. The White House, according to most of what I have read, has been divided into two camps. Bush and Cheney's. There are certain officials that are part of Cheney's crew (Perle, Rumsfeld, and other war hawks) that don't get along so well with Bush's crew (Condoleeza, Powell, Ridge). If Bush's re-election team thought that the crazy things coming out of Perle's mouth would hurt his chances... he is easily replaced and few will miss him.
Paul Spies (of Minneapolis) wrote a very astute letter to the editor for today's Star Trib. He noted that the new Minnesota social studies standards don't even mention the word "caucus." Our schools are is serious danger. Department of Education Commissioner Cheri Pearson Yecke is a disgrace to this state. Besides trying to indoctrinate children with her warped views of US and state history (such as ignoring the Vietnam War, celebrating President Ronald Reagan, and trivialize the ethnic cleansing of Native Americans), she somehow forgot to discuss our process of electing government officials??? I stand by the view that Gov. Pawlenty and his administration are intentionally trying to destroy public education in order to privitize the entire system.
Remember to go caucus.
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In other news... the Star Tribune reported a very interesting story about voter decision making. Although, there is one small problem with it. It argues that Democratic voters aren't necessarily looking for the candidate that would most likely beat George W. Apparently people are actually voting for the candidate that best represents their view on the issues. Exit polls show that voters who believe that the economy is the most important issue favor Edwards. They also state that among issue oriented votes, Kerry doesn't do well. After all that info telling us people want a candidate based on issues... the story ends with this sentence. "Among those who said they voted primarily on the basis of which candidate could beat Bush, Kerry defeated Edwards by 31 percentage points, which you could say is why Kerry won Wisconsin." So Kerry doesn't do well on the issues, and people want an issues candidate... so they vote for Kerry??? I know. I am confused too. Must have been a slow news day at the Strib.
Addressing the Richard Perle resignation, I must say I am somewhat surprised. Officials have claimed that he resigned because he did not want the Bush administration to be criticized for his personal views on foreign policy (such as wanting to invade every middle-eastern country not named Israel). But I wouldn't be surprised if he was forced out. The White House, according to most of what I have read, has been divided into two camps. Bush and Cheney's. There are certain officials that are part of Cheney's crew (Perle, Rumsfeld, and other war hawks) that don't get along so well with Bush's crew (Condoleeza, Powell, Ridge). If Bush's re-election team thought that the crazy things coming out of Perle's mouth would hurt his chances... he is easily replaced and few will miss him.
Paul Spies (of Minneapolis) wrote a very astute letter to the editor for today's Star Trib. He noted that the new Minnesota social studies standards don't even mention the word "caucus." Our schools are is serious danger. Department of Education Commissioner Cheri Pearson Yecke is a disgrace to this state. Besides trying to indoctrinate children with her warped views of US and state history (such as ignoring the Vietnam War, celebrating President Ronald Reagan, and trivialize the ethnic cleansing of Native Americans), she somehow forgot to discuss our process of electing government officials??? I stand by the view that Gov. Pawlenty and his administration are intentionally trying to destroy public education in order to privitize the entire system.
Remember to go caucus.
