Wednesday, August 28, 2013

What to say? Strib reports Hillary Clinton will be in St. Louis Park in October. So?

Should I get so excited I wet my pants in anticipation over Hillary's jaunt to raise money at $100-500 per seat, with the split of the take between the venue and Clinton's campaign not reported?

If the Dems run her because "it's time for a woman" she will lose and hurt Minnesota DFL candidates down ticket.

If it is time for a woman, I have no problem with Maria Cantwell, junior Senator from Washington as a sound and solid candidate.

Cantwell is as smart as Hillary, but without all that baggage.

Cantwell is as baggage free as Klobuchar, but smarter.

Cantwell does not grate on people. As with Klobuchar on that score. Just a brighter light bulb than Amy.

The only way a Hillary candidacy could succeed is if the Republicans run Paul Ryan. I do not think they are that stupid.

Hillary against Rand Paul, hard to handicap, but Rand would make a very strong showing. Possibly winning, although it now is too early to guess it on a more likely than not basis. Between Hillary and Rand Paul, I am unsure now how I would vote.

Hillary would be a disaster. Nobody at second spot would rescue things to any great measure.

Biden? He would have an equal effect on down ticket DFL'ers. Biden is as tired a DC insider as Clinton. Dayton was speaking soundly when he called DC a cesspool.

Oh -- worth saying. Hillary or Biden over Jindal, but again the statist Republicans are not so stupid as to run Jindal, nor the Texas governor.

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Readers are invited to state a preference in a comment, for who they believe their favored party should run, and who the other party should run, and why. So far, in terms of quality and winability, I think it is time for a woman on one of the major tickets, and regardless of gender, Cantwell is one I can now think of and envision as a most impressive choice. (That being said with no notion of whether she'd want a run, or, per inside party politics and how the money trees may shake, whether a Cantwell candidacy would advance.) But - who else? Russ Feingold? The Republicans? Jeb, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio? Who knows?

Another good question, next cycle, will MichelePAC spend much of anything on actually backing candidates, and if not, what are Bachmann's plans for money that her long supportig special fools might give her, still?

______________UPDATE______________
A point deserving clarification. Amy Klobuchar could be president and likely would do a better job than Reagan, Ford, Nixon, Bill Clinton, either Bush, and so far, Obama. And Obama and Clinton each is undeniably bright. Klobuchar has character intangibles that would trenscend that batch in quality, which is likely why she will never get a shot at the brass ring. Hillary is more a fit within that batch. And a rabid bat would be a better president than Nixon. Less time in office being one plus for the bat. Or are they rabies carriers only, without suffering terminal termination? In any event, the bat over Nixon, in an eyeblink.

____________FURTHER UPDATE____________
A reader has suggested Klobuchar has substantial baggage, but it's baggage others carry too.

Klobuchar was instrumental in the new Stillwater bridge boondoggle being perpetrated on taxpayers and on the environment. Klobuchar has supported sulfide mining up north, despite great environmental worry and uncertainty.

Klobuchar has been favorable to economic pressure interests that way, and unfriendly to the notion that the earth and waters and asthetics of Minnesota need representation too.

Opinions may differ, with the Iron Rangers' "Jobs, jobs, jobs," theme song coming to mind. "We owe, we owe, so off to work we [want to] go," the dwarfs sing. To one another. Who else cares besides big extraction polluters wanting to maximize profits by spending as little as they can get away with, in meeting environmental protection concerns?

___________FURTHER UPDATE_____________
Part 2, of the saga of Amy and the Big Pit Sulfide Miners -- those of the "Jobs, jobs, jobs," theme song might well have little to sing about; MinnPost, in an interesting item, stating:

So promises of good times and plentiful jobs need to be treated with circumspection. PolyMet has repeatedly scaled back its job predictions for its huge, open-pit sulfide mining project near Hoyt Lakes, Minn., and the company’s own figures suggest that only 90 of the promised 360 jobs just 25 percent — will go to local communities.

Local is, moreover, a relative term. Mine workers today tend not to live in mining towns; they will commute an hour or more to work. And hiring will always be subject to swings in metals prices, which are now dependent on two new factors: continued Chinese growth (and urbanization) and the entry of big financial firms into metals warehousing and trading.

A piddle in a puddle? Job-wise it is looking that way.

That is from the middle of a much longer online item, again here, to read it all (including the two hot links in the above quoted part of MinnPost's item, links that are omitted here).