Rally Time!

The husband skipped out of work early today, swung by the house and picked me up, and then we were on our way to the Sofitel for a "Get Out the Vote" rally for Norm Coleman.  We're not what you'd call "active" supporters, so there had to be a lure to get us to actually go, which was that Rudy Giuliani was going to be there.

When we arrived, the parking lot was packed, as was the lobby of the hotel, which seemed to be hosting a conference of "reproductive nurses" as well as the rally.  Hmmm.  That was interesting.  No protesters, except for one jackass who was roaming back and forth in the valet lane wearing a Dubya mask, but who had his hands in the air, just like Tricky Dick.  The rally was held in a lower level part of the lobby, which was obviously used for receptions and the like.  The railings and stairs, looking down where the podium was, were packed with people, all carrying Coleman signs, which the campaign was handing out.  The husband and I found a spot near the rear, but on a balcony, where we actually had a pretty good view.  About fifteen minutes after the scheduled start time, the Minnesota Mayors for Coleman went up on to the podium and waited for the main event to arrive.  Apparently they were told to be in place, so that when the big dogs arrived, they could get down to business.  And get down to business they did.  

Rudy and Norm went in together, right below me and I managed to get a few good snaps, when I could work my way around this annoying big guy who didn't realize his bulky arm that he had up in midair, holding a camera, recording the event, was blocking everyone's view.  

The theme of the event was, obviously, that mayors know how to govern. (For those of you not from the Twin Cities, Norm was the mayor of St. Paul before he became a senator.)  The mayor of North Branch introduced Norm and Rudy, and gave a nice introduction, of which the high point was when she said, "In times of uncertainty it's nice to know that Minnesota has a mayor in Washington." She kinda rambled on, even though Rudy and Norm were on the stage, and were ready to get on with things, but protocol is protocol, and Norm needs volunteers---and this was what this rally was about, picking up volunteers.  They wanted that to be clear.  

After many chants of "Ru-dy!, Ru-dy!  Ru-dy!" he started talking.  It was your basic stump speech, formed along the lines of the fact that they were both mayors, which is when they first met.  Some highlights:
 

• He said, when listing Norm's qualifications, that he'd done something "constructive before he went to the United States Senate.  It's not a game, it's not entertainment, it's not a joke.  Government's for real."
•  Lower taxes were a theme that played well with the audience and he spent a goodly amount of time on it.  "It's nice to say we're going to raise taxes on some group of people who are considered wealthy.  But the reality is, if you're not careful about tht, then the wealthy people won't provide the jobs we are all going to need to survive.  They take their money out of the state or they take their money out of the country or it goes someplace else.  There has to be an intelligent plan to the way we tax."  He went on to say that Norm understood this, that Norm understood the interplay between taxes and jobs.
•  He took a couple of shots at Al Franken, but never mentioned him by name.  "The people of Minnesota should not be asked to provide on the job training for someone who has no experience and no background in government.  Go get a little training first.  United States Senator, as far as I'm concerned, is not an entry level job."  And, "When he {Norm}gets up in the United States Senate to speak, nobody's going to laughing. Nobody's going to be giggling.  Nobody's going to be saying, 'How did this guy get here?'"  Which, if you know the recent history of this state's politics is true when speaking about Al Franken, but is also something of a slam against a past opponent.  Jesse "The Body" Ventura actually beat Norm and Skip Humphrey for the governor's slot ten years back.  After a few interviews with the press, to make the most of his newfound fame, Jesse really pissed a goodly number of people off.  That football announcer deal had something to do with it, too.  And they all wondered what the hell he was doing as governor.  When he decided not to run for re-election, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, but we all knew it was because he was afraid he wouldn't get re-elected.  If you want to look at it this way, even Jesse Ventura had more government experience than Al Franken in that Jesse was at least the mayor of Brooklyn Park for a time.

After that, Norm Coleman spoke, and he seemed genuinely happy to be there, but a little tired, and who can blame him. He shouldn't have to fight this hard to keep his seat just because some liberal carpetbagger decides he wants to be a senator and Minnesota is the place to do it.   If there was a Republican incumbent in New York up for re-election, dollars to donuts, dear old Al would be running for one of New York's senate slots this year. Anyway... the crowd started chanting "Six More Years" and that went on for about a minute.  The highlights:

• "I may have 'senator' before my name, but I still have 'mayor' stitched in my underwear.  And, no, I'm not going to show them to you."
•  He gave props to Rudy, thanked him for being there, and called him the Best Mayor in the US.
• "Public service is about leadership."  "It's about results and not rhetoric."
•  He gave a shout-out to Erik Paulsen, who is running for congress in Minnesota's third district (my district) and is trying to take Jim Ramstad's seat.  He's in a tight battle with newbie Democrat, former Marine, and compulsive liar, Ashwin Madia.  Seriously.  The dems are throwing major cash at this race to get Madia elected, and are smearing Paulsen in very ugly ways.  Problem is the dems know that this year is the only chance they have to get this guy into office because the district is overwhelmingly Republican, and they're hoping he'll slide in on Obama's coattails.  It was cool of Norm to share the spotlight because the rally was located in Paulsen's district.
• Norm took a few shots at Al, too.  "With all due respect to my opponent, Al Franken, he's for all the right things in theory, but not in practice."  He went on to list a number of things that Al says he's for, but would have voted against when they did come up in the Senate.
• At this point, Norm put aside his speech, and talked about how there were tough times in Minnesota.  He said his daughter just started college and his son was in law school, and he put up his IRA as collateral for their student loans.  That's his retirement, and he's anxious about the financial situation, too.
• He pointed out that he and Rudy, besides being mayors, had something else in common in that they were both prosecutors first, and he said he wants to prosecute those responsible for the financial crisis.
• He rambled a bit, but tried to hit the high points very quickly: lower taxes, responsiveness, and touted his St. Paul experience by saying if the streets weren't plowed, and he went out for milk, he heard about it.  "My mother didn't raise stupid children.  You only have to tell me once."  He learned a lesson while he was mayor that you "don't raise taxes on small businesses in times of economic trial."
• Reaching across the aisle was then mentioned, and he said there were problems in this country that needed more than one party to solve them.  "You can't fix it if you're sitting in a corner by yourself."
• He then asked the crowd four questions.  (1) Do you think the government should have to live within its means? (2) Do you think that everyone should have access to affordable healthcare, but that the government was not the best group to run it?   "There are no Mayo Clinics in Canada" was thrown out here and it was quite effective.  (3)Do you consider energy to be a national security issue?  Here he actually touted the French, when he said we needed more nuclear energy.  (4) Do you think security is an issue?  Everyone in the crowd, of course, answered with a resounding "yes" to each and every question.
• Finished up with a plea for people to come and work for him for the next twelve days.  Asked them to talk to their friends, family and neighbors about his record and to work the phone banks, go and knock on doors, etc.  Basically saying he can go nowhere without his supporters.  "A leader without followers is just a guy taking a walk."   

And that was that.  The husband and I made for the door, while Rudy and Norm gladhanded and posed for pictures with the crowd.

I did take pictures, but alas, I can't load them onto the server right now, so I shall post them whenever it gets fixed..  They're better than the ones I got at the RNC, for the most part.  I'm better at jockeying for space now, I think.   The husband was surprised at how short Rudy is.  I was too.  He seems larger than life, but in reality, the dude's 5'8" or so, by my estimate, and I already know that Norm's not much taller than me.

And thus endeth another political adventure.