The 2012 Campaign is Really On!

Money Pours into Minnesota for Tea Party Nutcakes!
by Charlie Leck

One thing about the Supreme Court Decision in Citizens United is that it is making Minnesota advertising agencies and political campaign consultants very rich. Michele Bachmann’s political campaign for reelection to the House of Representatives is going to be well funded. Money is pouring into her campaign coffers and 80 percent of it is coming from out of the state (see story in the StarTribune). By comparison, Democratic U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar is reporting that 40 percent of her campaign funds are coming from out of state.

Bachmann will have plenty of money to spend and she is going up against a well-heeled candidate (hotel owner Jim Graves) who will likely spend plenty of money on his campaign. Look for an improvement in Minnesota’s economy – at least in certain sectors.

Bachman’s take in the last quarter exceeds that of all but one other candidate for the U.S. House (and that is Allen West, Republican of Florida). In this second quarter of the year, Bachmann has taken in 1.9 million dollars.

The campaign for 2012 is really underway already. No doubt about it! And, readership of my blog always soars during political elections, I’m not sure I’m ready to begin pouring over the polls and looking for evidence of who might beat whom.

Yesterday I had lunch with a former neighbor of mine in an American Legion Hall in the area. The television was on and tuned to FOX News, which is probably not a surprise considering the location. Thankfully, I had my back to the idiot box and my lunch partner is a bit hard-of-hearing and I don’t think he knew it was on. John Sununu was blaring away and tearing into President Obama for the lack of transparency in his administration. (Transparency! Hasn’t that become the most fashionable word in all of political campaigning these days? I don’t ever remember hearing Richard Nixon using that word.) Anyway, the 72 year old Sununu was going on and on about the corruptive practices of President Barack Obama. Good old FOX – a news station that couldn’t give a rip about facts and accuracy. Can you believe it? The news giant always makes the campaign complicated because they provide instant gratification for all those jerks out there who want to get filled up with anger and hate! And these are just the kind of folks who absolutely love Michele Bachmann because she also fuels their fires.

Sununu exclaimed that our President “doesn’t know how to manage a lemonade stand… and if the President wants to talk about felons we can talk about Tony Rezko, we can talk about his relationship with Blagojevich, we can talk about the fact that these guys like to do business in a way that nauseates the American public.”

Are you ready? I’m not, but here we go. The muck and mud has started to fly and it will be hard not to get dirty if you get to close to this campaign.

I hate it! I really do. Give me another round of Adlai Stevenson vs. Dwight David Eisenhower. Now that was a campaign that didn’t make you feel scummy all over.

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