Without question, Mark delivered a convincing victory in Tuesday night’s AARP debate with Amy Klobuchar.  As I said last night, the AARP debate showed a clear difference between the candidates in both substance and stature. 

Mark clearly had a command of the issues and the facts well beyond that of Ms. Klobuchar.   Amy Klobuchar simply cannot move beyond her Democrat provided talking points and sound bites.  She was repeatedly tripped up when asked to explain the contradictions in the positions she’s taken.  

But, as President Reagan liked to say, “facts are stubborn things.”   

It’s a fact that the prescription drug scheme Ms. Klobuchar supports will deny drugs to seniors.  The VA program she wants to bring to all Minnesota seniors only allows seniors access to 19%, fewer than 1 in 5, of the drugs approved since 2000.  Friends, that’s called rationing.   

It’s a fact that Ms. Klobuchar supports a Senate Immigration Bill that would pay billions in Social Security benefits to illegal immigrants and others who used a fraudulent Social Security number and require Mexico’s permission to build a fence along the Southern border.   

Additionally, Ms. Klobuchar keeps claiming she supports body armor for the troops when she knows full well she came out against the bill that contained body armor and explosive detection equipment.   When you’re voting on a bill to fund the War on Terrorism, that’s what the bill is about.  It’s about body armor, Humvees, IED equipment, weapons systems, pay, etc. 

When Amy Klobuchar decided that an extraneous ANWR provision was more important than all these things that are critical to winning the War and supporting our troops, she made a choice, she established priorities.  In Mark’s view, the wrong choice and the wrong priorities.   

Legislative bodies rarely, if ever, produce perfect bills.  When you’re a legislator, you don’t get to be for or against things in the abstract, you have to be for or against them in reality when you vote.  Often, that involves making difficult choices.  Then you go back and keep working on the things you don’t like or don’t think go far enough.   Ms. Klobuchar either doesn’t know what she’s for, is engaging in lawyer-speak to confuse people, or is saying one thing and doing another.

Finally, Ms. Klobuchar’s inability to name one area where she differs from her party makes it clear that electing Amy Klobuchar to the U.S. Senate would be no different than a second term for Senator Dayton.  Minnesotans don’t need another six years of a Senator on the liberal fringe, getting nothing done and more interested with playing partisan politics.  

Tonight was a clear turning point in the U.S. Senate race.

Pat  

Does Amy Klobuchar support the winner of the Democrat primary in the 5th Congressional district? 

I don’t know the answer.  But it seems like a relevant question, given many of Mr. Ellison’s past associations and past statements, especially on very serious law enforcement issues like the prosecution of Sara Jane Olson and his harsh criticisms of law enforcement officers.

It will be curious to see if Ms. Klobuchar uses this as an opportunity to show real leadership.

Pat

There’s an old joke that says, there only two things you can’t trust liberal politicians with, words or numbers.  I was reminded of that great line, after hearing Amy Kolobuchar deliver her carefully scripted line to describe Mark’s detailed plans to bring real change to Washington as lacking in substance.

You have to admire her audacity.  Here you have a candidate who has hid behind carefully scripted sound bites, who has run a cookie cutter campaign handed down from Washignton, DC criticizing Mark’s very specific plan laying out real solutions.

If you doubt this, go to Mark’s plan on the website and read it for yourself.  You will find specific and detailed proposals on the critical issues facing Minnesota and the nation.  You won’t find anything of a similar nature from Amy Klobuchar.

You will find her offering, more or less, a second Mark Dayton term.  You find her offering six more years of partisan bomb throwing and extreme liberal fringe positions that get nothing done for Minnesota.

That’s the reason Amy Klobuchar talks so much about George Bush: The last thing she wants to talk about is her positions on the issues and the agenda the country will face if Amy Klobuchar, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, and Ted Kennedy are in charge of the Senate come January.

Trillion dollar tax increases, government run health care, retreat in the War on Terrorism, fillibustering qualified judges, and on down the line, is not exactly an agenda they can take to Minnesota voters.  So they change the subject, to almost anything else.

I think that www.dedicatedhostingserver.org is the best dedicated server hosting site But, as Election Day nears, voters aren’t being fooled.  Democrats in Washington know Ms. Klobuchar and her agenda won’t sell.  That’s why they have put $300,000 into the DFL Party and reserved $2 million worth of TV ads for the month of October.

The say-one-thing-do-another candidacy of Amy Klobuchar is losing steam.  The focus on issues and solutions is moving the race in Mark’s direction and will lead to victory on Election Day.

Pat

Just returned from the Kennedy-Klobuchar debate at the Fair.  The ink was barely dry on our agreement with the Klobuchar campaign about the debates when they violated the terms. 

I don’t know what the Dems think they gain by heckling and hooting and hollering when Mark is talking.  They make themselves look ridiculous and fundamentally unserious about the real challenges facing the country.

On to the debate.  It was enlightening.  It has been extremely difficult to pin down Amy Klobuchar.  She has a remarkable gift for saying one thing and doing another.  It was on display again this morning.

She insisted she supports the troops while defending her opposition to a bill that would have provided them with body armor and explosive detection equipment.

She had no answer when Mark asked her how she reconciled her attacks on oil companies with the fact that her mutual fund portfolio is full of ExxonMobil stock.

She tried to claim that she would help middle-class families despite promoting a tax increase agenda that will destroy jobs and hurt family budgets.  You know you better look out when liberal Democrats start claiming they’re only going to tax “the rich.”

She came out in favor of the recently-enacted Energy Bill, despite the DFL Party attacking Mark for his vote in favor of it.  I guess they’ll have to shelve that phony attack.

On another note, we did finally, at long last, learn of one disagreement between Ms. Klobuchar and Mark Dayton: She said she would have supported the President’s nominee for CIA director.  It ain’t much, but it’s something.  Maybe next time she’ll be able to come up with something on at least one policy issue.

There are 6, maybe 7, more of these debates left.  I hope future ones will be as enlightening, though with a more courteous audience.

Hope you have a great Labor Day.  If you’re at the Fair this weekend, stop and say hello to Mark.

Pat

In an AP Story today on Sen. Dayton’s impact on the U.S. Senate race, Amy Klobuchar’s campaign manager, Ben Goldfarb, called the question about where Amy Klobuchar differs from Mark Dayton “besides the point.”

Ben, that’s exactly the point.  For six years, Minnesotans have been forced to live with a Senator who has been out on the liberal fringe, not getting things done for Minnesota.  It’s the reason only 41% of Minnesotans approve of the job he’s doing, while 48% of Minnesotans disapprove.  This places him 99th out of 100 Senators.

Minnesotans do not want, do not need, six more years of the same.  So far, Amy Klobuchar has not identified a single policy difference between her and Senator Dayton.

Six more years of an extremely partisan liberal will not serve Minnesota or America well.  That’s not change.  That’s more of the same. 

Minnesota needs a common-sense leader who can deliver results for Minnesota.  That candidate is Mark Kennedy.

Pat

Throughout the campaign Amy Klobuchar has bragged that she doesn’t rely on Washington Celebrities for support.

As usual, you need to watch what Amy Klobuchar does, not what she says.  The latest hyposcrisy: former President Bill Clinton, about as celebrated a Washington Celebrity as Democrats can bring to Minnesota, is coming to Minnesota to raise gobs of money for Ms Klobuchar and the DFL.

This is actually Ms Klobuchar’s second Clinton Fundraiser: Last month, Hillary Clinton hosted a Manhattan fundraiser for her.  

As a Republican, perhaps the problem is in taking Ms. Klobuchar’s words too literally.  I mean, I suppose it’s possible that the Clintons are New York celebrities, not Washington celebrities.  Perhaps, given their liberal sensibility, they are Citizens of the World.

But this leaves us with the sticky problem of how we classify Senators Harkin, Obama, Bayh, and former-Senator Edwards. 

The “Washington Celebrity” issue is symptomatic of the real and growing credibility problem with Amy Klobuchar and her campaign. 

She rails against special interests, yet she was a registered lobbyist for 12 years.

She calls herself a tough prosecutor, but hasn’t prosecuted a single case as Hennepin County Attorney.

She talks about new ideas and new solutions, but has offered nothing new or different than Senator Dayton. 

Because the DFL and Democrats nationally have moved so far to the left, they have few desirable options in this campaign.  They must obfuscate on issues when not avoiding them at all cost.

Then again, they learned from the master.  Come and see.  He’ll be here in September.

Pat

Amy Klobuchar has now run three campaign ads.  Using the same standard as our friends in the MSM, the following questions jump out:

(1) Why has Amy Klobuchar mentioned only once, in the most cursory fashion, that she is a Democrat?  Why is she running from her party?  Is it because she knows how far out of the mainstream they have moved?

(2) Why hasn’t Amy Klobuchar once mentioned one of her heroes, the man she hopes to replace, Senator Mark Dayton?  Is she running away from Senator Dayton because his approval rating stands 99th out of 100 Senators?  

(3) Amy Klobuchar has now talked about prosecuting judges, CEOs, scam artists, and tax cheats.  Why has she gone out of her way to avoid talking about prosecuting violent criminals?  Why is she running away from her record?

(4) Ms. Klobuchar says “if you want new solutions, you need to send new people to Washington.”  But so far, Amy Klobuchar has failed to offer one single policy idea or solution that is different from those proposed by Senator Dayton.  What new solutions or new ideas is Amy Klobuchar proposing that are different than Mark Dayton?

(5) Will we get answers from Amy Klobuchar to any of these questions?  Will anyone else even ask?

Pat

I spent yesterday traveling with Mark.  It was a great day, the second leg of his tour introducing his plan to bring real change to Washington.

The plan and the tour clearly have our friends on the other side a bit agitated.  I think I know why.  While they use change as a buzzword, as a political slogan, Mark has offered a real plan with real solutions to bring real change. 

The other side seems to believe that all it takes is repeating the words often enough.  No work required; no new ideas required.  That’s why they keep losing elections.

What Amy Klobuchar is offering Minnesota is basically Mark Dayton’s 2nd term.  What has she brought to the table that’s any different than Senator Dayton?  Nothing, so far as I can tell. 

She’s offered no policy differences.  She’s offered the same partisan politics.  And yesterday, she offered up the same kind of gaffes.  In trying to politicize Homeland Secruity, she thought that the head of the Department of Homeland Security was the successor to Mike Brown at FEMA.  You’re doing a heckuva job, Kloby.

This is not what Minnesotans want in their next Senator.  They don’t want a carbon copy of Mark Dayton.  They want somone who will get things done for Minnesota, not somone who will spend six more years out on the liberal fringe.

One last thing: When I got back in I heard that the usual suspects in the MSM were trotting out the question, “is Mark Kennedy losing support?”  Answer: No.  Not in reality land, anyway.

We’re moving along nicely according to our plan.  If the other team really believed they were well ahead, then why did Sen. Schumer and the Democrat Senatorial Committee just place $2 million worth of TV for October?  Because they know this is a very close, very important race.

See you soon.

Pat

We figured it was about time to join the blogosphere as direct participants.  We’ve been written about for so long, it was past time to join the fun.

Right now, Mark is on a 13-city tour of the state, outlining his plan to bring real change to Washington.  The not-very-imaginative skeptics seem to be having a hard time getting their arms around the idea that a Republican can actually bring change to Washington!! 

Horrors.

The idea is pretty simple:  There are things in Washington that are off track.  One of those things is a Senate that remains bogged down in politics and partisanship.  For six years, our Senator, Mark Dayton, has been part of the problem.  It’s why his approval rating is 98th out of 100 Senators and why Time Magazine ranked him as one of the 5 Worst Senators.

Mark believes we must change this, that we don’t need 6 more years of a Senator out on the liberal fringe getting nothing done. 

But you say, “come on, Shortridge.  Amy Klobuchar is no Mark Dayton.”  My answer to you is, when Amy Klobuchar’s campaign manager and I appeared on Almanac a week or so ago, I asked him for a difference or two between Ms. Klobuchar and Sen. Dayton. 

He couldn’t give me one policy difference.  He offered that Ms. Klobuchar would have attended a speech that Sen. Dayton boycotted.  All I could think was, “really?  That’s it?”

In any case, Mark Kennedy knows that real change takes real work and a real plan.  He has one.  You can get it on our website at www.markkennedy06.com.  Look it over.  Think about it.  Email or call if you have questions about it.

Then, ask the other side if they have a plan or if they’re just going to complain.

See you soon.

Pat

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