Cheers! CNN/YouTube : This was way less crazy thany I thought it was going to be!
Cheers! John Edwards : The Hair Video! It was awesome! Of all the candidates you made a video that was funny, topical, and poignant. And you laughed at yourself! Good job JRE.
Jeers 
John Edwards : That question about how you’re wife thought you’d be better for womens rights than HRC? Smile that bajillion-watt million dollar smile and say that you’re wife is biased. Your answer seemed to be grasping a little hard at straws that could have just bent for you with charm.
Cheers! Bill Richardson : You seemed way less grandstanding and creepy than you had previously! Keep it up buddy.
Cheers! Hillary Clinton : You are still the front-runner, for good reason.
Jeers Mike Gravel : I’d like to have Thanksgiving dinner with you. I can imagine it now. You’d be a little tippled by the time the Football started, you’d tell great stories about Korea/Nam/the skeezy years in Asbury Park, over dinner. But dude — there is no place for two crazy uncles in the run for the White House. And Ron Paul is way more interesting than you are.
Cheers! Joe Biden : You haven’t been the best Biden you could be, but you’ve been a refreshing breath of sensibility and experience in the last two debates in matters of foreign policy. Specifically the passion you’ve shown over Darfur is amazing.
Comments: Todays debate, more so than any of the ones that have come before it showed Barack Obama for the candidate that he really is. So far he has served as a blank slate. On him many people project their hopes and their guilt, he is the panacea to any lingering racial doubts and his positive message is positive enough to make you warm and fuzzy inside, but nebulous enough that you aren’t quite sure he’s so excited about.
Todays debate served as evidence to the fact that Barack Obama isn’t as liberal as some Democrats would like him to be, and as many Republicans portray him. His economic policy is fairest and most sensible of any candidate in the race (Republican, or Democrat). He showed in discussing his health care policy that he operates in a sensible pro-market arena without being some HMO loving Republican. His answers on Iraq acknowledged the reality of the situation on the ground and the reality of America’s interest.
Barack Obama’s endorsement from Ted Sorensen is fitting — a compelling argument can be made that JFK was the most moderate Democrat to occupy the White House — at least since Truman, but possibly ever; and Barack Obama is much closer to JFK in the political spectrum than he is to Jimmy Carter or Lyndon Johnson. I’m still a John Edwards supporter, but Obama’s policies are sensible and his potential is enticing to people throughout America, not just in the liberal elite — so I’m keeping my options open.
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From today’s Star and Tribune
“Gov. Pawlenty is one of the most thoughtful, introspective of all our governors,” said Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, the group’s new vice chairman. “Among all our governors, no one looks to the future more than Tim Pawlenty.”
I love that even Democrats recognize what an awesome Governor Tim Pawlenty is.
DFL - please keep trying to pass crazy legislation, it helps make Governor Pawlenty look good.
Dear Haha/Pawlenty Rules.
Please only post under one name. We here at MNPublius view posting under multiple names to be ‘spam’. And we don’t appreciate it.
Thanks,
Sean
PS. you probably shouldn’t post from your job at Allianz Life Insurance on company time. FYIzzle.
Sean,
You’re right that people shouldn’t post under more than one name, but I don’t know that it’s fair game to tell their employer information or accuse them of posting on company time. Afterall, Zack was paid by the taxpayers to work in the House of Representatives and that didn’t prevent him from blogging here while working in the House.
Does that mean that Chris is unemployed?
Did I miss something?
How does an odd comment about Paw Lenty figure into the post about the debate?
Does Steve Cannon know one of his characters is missing?
Would that be like mentioning here that Normy lied on Fox?
I would think that most people who blog during the day are doing it from work. I certainly am. The comments were lame, using two different names was lamer still, but outing someone (even if its just their employer) is bad form.
Mockingbird,
Very funny. I’m my own boss, thank you very much. Which begs the question, who is paying your salary while you’re blogging today?
In all seriousness, Dan is right. It is bad form to post someone’s employer. Once you start outing people’s employers, the slippery slope begins — which is why I asked about the taxpayers paying Zack to blog while he was working for the House.
I have to say that was certainly not cool. If he was to out my employer, I would cease to ever blog here again. Anyway, who gives a crap where people work or whether or not they are blogging on company time. It’s not your tax dollars paying him or her in most cases, right? So I think Chris should really mind his own business, literally, on that issue, as should we all.
Furthermore, some of us may be in positions that allow for some freedom to do things that actually make our lives better and more enjoyable, even while on the job. Imagine that! This American crap about life having to be hell while at work is such a slave mentality.
Also, some of us type really fast. I type 75 wpm, so I can sneak in comments on several different blogs all day long in between typing emails, etc.
Chris — You conflate working for the House of Representatives and blogging during the work day.
I go out of my way to blog and comment only during my break times and while at lunch. I can’t speak for everyone but I know that I take the responsibility of my job reasonably seriously and I don’t let it interfere with the work I am paid to do. I know that Zack was equally serious about the separation between the site and his job.
Inevitably there are exceptions to this, but I try to avoid it. Sean
Cheers to John Edwards for one of the most powerful moments of the debate, when he asserted that drug companies and insurance companies wouldn’t compromise or give up their power, that power would have to be taken from them. That’s the biggest difference between him and Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton — he understands how real change will happen.
Yeah I’m the worst of all the at work bloggers. Whatya gonna do? Hopefully I’ll be fired soon.
That’s pretty damn funny. I’ve had many jobs in my life when I felt exactly like that.
Edwards knows where the change will come from. I think so too.
He’s got the most sensible policy on gay marriage - it makes no sense to expect to be able to tell religions who they have to include. Which is not exactly what others are promising, but it sounds that way in the sound bites.
It simply wouldn’t fly - and he is committed to not abridging their rights, despite feeling personally different about it.
There are many good choices, but they are subtle differences.
I really wish I could take one part of Edwards, throw in one part of Biden, another of Kucinish & Richardson, a bit of Hillary & Obama.
I still would love to see Gore & Clark pop in, if a front runner doesn’t pull away soon.
After all, Newty & Freddy Thompson will make their announcements in September - without having had undergone the scrutiny the rest have…
And Newty will have figured he’s repented enough for his sexual dalliances & hypocrisy. A Jimmy Swaggart bawling for the cameras moment to get past the screw up that maybe has the most legs with religious people.
It will be forgotten as being “in the past.” Out of sight, out of mind - “yesterday.” There was a calculated reason Newt did his testimony & penance this past spring…
Sean,
Fair enough. But should your site be posting the names of other employers of people who post on this site? I don’t think that’s such a good idea.
Wow, I’m on another break right now. I’ll just finish this post and it time to go home. But I notice there aren’t many people in the local blogosphere very critical of our urban planning and housing policy. Why is that? I’ve got two interviews I’m conducting now on the condo market and the development strategy of the TC area as a whole. Given Miami’s failure to intervene in its own development and its resignation to lazzez condo mania, I think it would make an interesting example of what not to do:
http://www.minneapolitics.com/?p=92
As far as work blogging goes, why care? Think of all the ding dongs out there who either take a bunch of smoke breaks or go sleep in the bathroom. At least we’re engaged in the political process.
Right on Jones! I dig.
Chris,
You said:
“Nitro = permanent ignore (and by the way is creeping closer and closer into the territory where I can understand why someone shot a gun at his van).”
Are you sure I’m not in that territory? My opinion is different than yours. I’m sure you’d love to do something about that huh. Loser.
I won’t post it in Matt’s thread — but…
You two, knock it off or I’ll put you both in the corner and not let you out until you can name all of the monarchs of England in order from 1066. Sean
Sean, http://www.britannia.com/history/h6f.html
My wife, a hardcore DFL supporter, and I watched the debate and both were more turned off than ever. It is sad that candidates are so rarely able to give a straight answer to the questions being asked. It is no means a Democratic only thing which makes it if anything worse. I keep having hopes for somebody like Richardson to step out of the standard safe answer routine and deal with one of the many problems everybody else seems to gloss over. People don’t want to talk about what really happens when we do leave Iraq or how will they return the executive branch to it rightful level of power or how they will deal with corruption and ethics reforms (earmarks and special tax breaks especially). So far they continue the politicians standard of promising the world while ignoring the costs and hard problems.
That being said I think Richardson was the least offensive to me personally.
I’m sorry if I have offended any of you, but the simple fact is, I’m not “outing” anyone who is posting (somewhat…) responsibly on our comments.
I didn’t contact anyone at Allianz, I am not going to either; because I like to leave responsibility like that to Matt. But it is reasonable, that people who violate our rules know that they aren’t doing it anonymously. If you spam, or post inappropriately from your job, I think we have every right to tell your employer that. If you break the law, or our sites rules we have the ability to follow up.
In the end, I figure as long as your boss is happy with your production, they won’t care if from time to time you comment on a blog. But if you are using the web access they give you maliciously they have every right to remedy that. Sean
Sean,
I disagree with your position. It is clear that at least one of the three of you who post on this blog is an employee of the State of Minnesota. As a state employee you are using state property funded by taxpayers as well as state time, also funded by taxpayers. I think if you go down this path you open yourself up to someone saying that you are using taxpayer resources for political purposes. I don’t actually have a problem with you blogging from your job. But I think you’re in a more vulnerable position if you decide to go down this road than the guy at Allianz, if you want to know the truth.