This Time It's not Personal:I was listening to Minnesota Public Radio where two columnists from the St Paul Pioneer Press were chatting about the visit from the President yesterday. One columnist who leans conservative, gave a more balanced perpsective of the President and his handling of the economy. The other one, who leaned liberal was boorish, calling the visit a campaign visit. There was no balance from him. He sounded pretty sure of himself and that just turned me off. I turned down the volumn after that.



I think one of the reasons that liberalism is in decline here in America is because it is no longer the working man's ideology. But not anymore. It still claims to care about workers, but in many ways they don't act that way. Also, they seem to think that they can just run on their history. Case in point was the 2002 Senator's race in Minnesota. Paul Wellstone had died tragically in a plane crash and Walter Mondale stepped up to the plate. In the one debate with the GOP candidate, Norm Coleman, Mondale was mean to Coleman painting as a waterboy to extremist Republicans and touting the fact that he was in the Senate before and would get senority. He did not paint a picture for the future, just shared the past. Coleman, on the other hand, was gracious to the former Vice President and reminded people he wanted to "change the tone of the Senate." Coleman won because he came accross as pleasant and respectful. Mondale lost because he could not offer a plan and relied on the Democrat's history.

Meanwhile, liberals have also seemed to stop really caring about the lives of working class Americans. Yes, they talk about them and unions support them, but the ruling leaders of the Democrats come are upper middle class and no longer speak the language of the working person. The reason that the GOP is making in roads with the common man even though their policies don't reflect that is that they present a more common demeanor. The reason Bush is so popular, is because he presents himself as the common man. People like him. Bill Clinton understood this as well. I do wonder if the people running for President get that.

What's also interesting is how personal liberals are taking this election. It's not that it shouldn't be, but all this hatred of Bush can't be good. Simply saying to the electorate that one hates Bush is not going to put a Dem in the White House. They have to present a vision. What is their version of America? You can hate W. all you want, but people want to know WHY they are voting for someone.



Of course these are all the musings of a Republican.