Thursday, October 23, 2008

Arne Carlson endorses Obama

Excuse me. I'm struggling to beat back some tiny flickers of hope. This latest endorsement ...

Must repeat ..."President $150,000 Palin".

Phew. That was tough, but I'm back to feeling doomed.

This announcement really did surprise me ...
Talking Points Memo | Rumblings, Pt. 3

Former Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson (R) is endorsing Barack Obama.

Usually when you hear these sorts of stories it's someone who was governor for like one term in the 1970s or something, when party divisions were very different from today. Carlson, though, was Minnesota Governor for most of the 1990s. My recollection is that he basically got run out by the hard right faction of the GOP in the state. But he was a moderate, but a genuine Republican. He cited Bachmann's tirade as one thing that pushed him to endorse.
Carlson was despised by the Minnesota right. He never got a primary endorsement, but he won every time he ran. He'd still be governor but for term limits. Heck, I might even have voted for him once.

Carlson was one of the last of the old, responsible, sane, pre-Gingrich Republicans. He's remembered well in Minnesota.

His endorsement matters here.

We have another Minnesota Republican like Carlson -- Representative Jim Ramstad. I wouldn't vote for him, but he's definitely respectable. Nobody serious bothers to run against him, but he's quitting politics anyway.

I notice he doesn't seem to have done any campaigning for McCain/Palin, though technically he endorsed McCain in Congress. I wonder if he could turn.

If the GOP loses the presidency, and launches an internal reform, people like Carlson and Ramstad could help craft a respectable alternative.

Must beat back hope, must beat back hope ...

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