10 Questions About The November Election

Yesterday's primaries confirmed each party's nominees for governor and United States Senate but created a few new questions. Here are mine

1. Will Democratic nominee Susan Wismer actually campaign? The better question may be can she actually campaign? Primaries should have a natural side-effect of creating a campaign message, energizing volunteers, and developing a get out the vote organization. Getting 55% of the 11% of Democrats and Independents who voted is hardly evidence that she or her people have done any of those things.

2. Will Gordon Howie keep Stace Nelson's 17% and can he get some of the Larry Rhoden's West River support in November? If so, the U.S. Senate race just got much more exciting.

3.Do campaigns matter? Lowe ran a far more effective public campaign that Wismer. Nelson seemed to have a better grassroots effort than Rhoden. (The latter impression is based only on East River travel and conversation.) Neither of the campaigns produced a victory, actual or perceived. Nelson's third place finish has to be seen as a loss.

4. Do enough people remember Larry Pressler to make him a factor in the U.S. Senate race?

5. Will Mike Myers stop doing push ups and develop a campaign message that gets him into double digits?

6. Can Susan Wismer take and deliver a punch? She seems to be a competent businesswoman and a good parent. (Her daughter is very polite to me on Twitter.) Those qualities, however, do not win elections. Lowe's attacks were issue based and relatively mild, so she really hasn't been tested. Further, she never responded, so it's unclear that she can hit back.

7. Rounds, Daugaard, and Noem either have enough cash or have sources that can flood their campaigns with cash; will any of their Democratic or Independent candidates be able to raise enough money to keep one of the races competitive?

8. Will the Democrats pick up seats in the legislature?

9. Can the Democrats win at least one of the statewide elections?

10. In the answer to both questions 7 and 8 is no, will the Democrats do anything to change or will they continue to cede power to Republicans and Tea Partiers?

I've left off the obvious question about Susan Wismer's running mate. Suffice it to say, it will not be any of the Democratic party's leading lights: Brendan Johnson, Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin, or Bernie Hunhoff. Also, it won't be a unity ticket with Joe Lowe.

Election Day Wisdom: What To Do If Voters Do Something Stupid

Actually, it's any day wisdom that applies to any situation when one must deal with stupid people who demonstrate the need to illustrate their stupidity. Election day, more than most days, has the potential to make me want to scream, "How can people be so stupid and still breathe?" Almost of all of those people who will challenge what little Christian charity I possess will be online today.

The wisdom necessary to deal with stupid people can be expressed humorously with a little irony as shown in this classic:

Duty Calls

This expression makes the same point.

Borrowed From Flights of (Almost) Fancy

Of course one can always turn to sacred wisdom:

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: [James 1:19]

 Stay calm; go vote.

Is This Presidential Campaign Really Between Money And Social Media?

Over at Madville Cory points to a Politico post that reports that "Obama beats Romney in Facebook followers 27 million to 1.8 million and Twitter followers 16 million to half a million."

Meanwhile, Political Wire quotes Clay Shirky who opines:

"Clinton used mailing lists in '92, and every election since then -- famously Howard Dean to Barack Obama -- has involved considerably more imaginative use of social media. And this election has not. I've been quite surprised by that."

"I had a student looking at Super PACs a while ago, and we said, 'Let's try and find out what the Super PACs' social media strategy is.' As she came back about 10 days later, she said, 'I think I know what the Super PAC's social media strategy is: Don't use it.' That's exactly the whole point of being a Super PAC, to be able to spend unlimited money on the kind of media where no one has the right or the ability to respond, and to minimize transparency. This election feels to me, right now, more Nixon-Kennedy than Obama-McCain because television has become the tool of choice for the source of unlimited fundraising. Politicians like television better; nobody gets to yell back to you if you're yelling on TV." [Emphasis mine]

Forget the arguments about the size of government, the advisability of same sex marriage, or any other issue.  The contest is apparently about the difference between telling everyone more than they want to know for free or spending billions to make sure that no one knows anything about you. 

And Never The Twain Shall Meet

At The Atlantic, Conor Friedersdorf makes an astute observation about voters and the presidency.  When voters go to the polls,

[t]hey're choosing the person who'll preside over the Armed Forces, negotiate with foreign leaders, manage the bureaucracy, shepherd legislation through Congress, execute the nation's laws, and otherwise fulfill the many obligations of the presidency.

One TV talking head--I believe it was George Will--has said that Americans take the measure of a candidate and determine whether to trust the person with nuclear weapons.  Give the responsibilities of the office, that response would be reasonable.

Friedersdorf, however, argues that voters and the media focus on candidates who

. . . [are] qualified to run a good campaign. . . . .telegenic, charismatic, . . . quick-witted at times, . . .wily in  . . attacks and counterattacks, [raise] a lot of money, and [have] mastered the dog-whistle. . . [and rise] to prominence by adeptly leveraging media appearances.

If Friedersdorf's brief analysis is accurate, and I'm pretty sure it is; campaigning and governing require totally different skill sets.  During the coming months that are guaranteed to produce election fatigue, voters should remember to look for the person best able to govern, not the person best able to campaign.

Another Election Eve Rambling

Names matter.

The opt out opponents hired Paul Dorr’s Copperhead Consulting Firm.  During the Civil War, Northerners who supported the Confederacy called themselves Copperheads. “Mr. Dorr loves the South and as a studentof history, especially of how government schools flourished after the CivilWar, he named his company after the Copperheads, i.e. Northern sympathizers.”  The Copperheads were infamous for their scurrilous attacks on Abraham Lincoln, a president who preserved the Union and who urged Americans to appeal to “the better angels of our nature."  It’s curious why one would reject Lincoln’s "efforts to bind up the nation's wounds" and side with the Copperheads who sought to destroy the United States.

Symbols matter.

One CFSE member has taken to bedecking his vehicle with American flags and "Vote No" messages.  It is his right to do so.  If he is implying, however, that those who support the opt out, especially those who have served or who lost family members in Iraq, are unpatriotic, then Yankton residents should be aware that we are witnessing empty jingoism not patriotism.

Visions Matter.

The American Dream has always seemed a misnomer.  It’s a uniquely American Vision that people of the future will have more opportunities than we enjoy now.  A dream is ethereal; a vision demands effort to achieve.  The opt out is about maintaining a status quo; should it fail, certain parts of the local vision will fade to dreams.  There is no way that students will have the same opportunities two years or five years or ten years from now without more funding to continue to offer the diverse curriculum that has benefited so many over the past decades.  More importantly, some people who helped make learning possible will be missing.  The spirit to carry on may be willing but the flesh is weak and unable to effectively replace over twenty people.

Tomorrow matters.

Tomorrow is the chance to answer the appeal to one’s better angels, to reject empty symbolism, and to ensure that the vision that has helped foster success continues.  Tonight, one clings to the fog of hope believing that tomorrow will produce the substance of a good future.

Election Eve Rambling

Like most Americans, I seldom care about local elections.  I can spout the cliches:  all politics is local or the government closest to the people governs best.   But they're cliches and I seldom care.

I like following national and statewide elections.  The Bush/Gore election was a lot like Christmas Eve; I stayed up late waiting for the winner just like I used to stay up waiting for Christmas morning.  Lately elections have become pretty boring.  Polls are usually accurate and the outcome is usually predictable.

Tomorrow's election seems more momentous than most. Funny how seeing 22 colleagues lose their job crystallizes the mind. Local politics will have an immediate personal impact.  More importantly, no one seems to know who will win.

Tomorrow, I'll go and vote early.  I don't live in Chicago, so I won't vote often.

Tonight, I'll sit and stew a bit.  It doesn't feel like Christmas Eve; it seems a lot more important.

Election Day Wisdom

all over South Dakota a small minority believers in the democratic process are casting votes in municipal and school board elections.  A few folks far wiser than I have offered some important observations about the process.  On this day, I will let their wisdom stand without comment.  I'll let their enlightened cynicism stand without comment as well.

In the first place God made idiots.  This was for practice.  Then he made school boards.--Mark Twain

The great thing about democracy is that it gives every voter a chance to do something stupid.--Art Spander

No one in this world has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.--H. L. Mencken

Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.--George Bernard Shaw

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.--Sir Winston Churchill

Vote: The instrument and symbol of a free man's power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country.--Ambrose Bierce


We always want the best man to win an election. Unfortunately, he never runs.--Will Rogers


Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.--John Kenneth Galbraith


An election is nothing more than the advanced auction of stolen goods.--Ambrose Bierce

We stand today at a crossroads: One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other leads to total extinction.  Let us hope we have the wisdom to make the right choice.--Woody Allen