DFL Education Foundation

It's Not Enough to Be Against

An ongoing undercurrent in progressive circles has been to redefine what liberals represent - or perhaps to simply define.  Matt Bai of the New York Times notes that while many conservatives simply wanted to defeat Democrats in the 1970s, it was an icon (Ronald Reagan) with a big vision of anti-communism and anti-government that carried them to victory in 1980.  Where's the liberal Ronald Reagan?

Media reviewing campaign ads

The Star Tribune is running a campaign truth squad for this election season and it has jumped right on some of the early ads.  They begin with a dissection of Mark Kennedy's latest commercial, one that features his "working across party lines" comment.  The Star Tribune isn't biting, however, bringing up his 95% average party line voting.  There are also some interesting tidbits from the paper's interview with Rep. Kennedy following the review of the commercial.  WCCO's Reality Check echoes the Strib, and also discusses the ad's complete omission of Kennedy's membership in the Republican Party. 

The DFLSenate blog looks at the ad from the left perspective and it has several comments on the ad.  A survey of right leaning blogs didn't find much.

Update 3:36pm: The Star Tribune story author Eric Black's blog has a number of interesting comments on his initial story and reactions.