The parallels between the plan for President-elect Barack Obama to post YouTube videos of his Saturday presidential radio addresses and President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s famed fireside chats aren’t lost on anyone this morning. Obama will roll out the practice tomorrow when he gives the Democratic response to President George W. Bush’s radio address.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty continues to relish his own weekly hourlong “Good Morning, Minnesota” radio show every Friday on WCCO-AM, a carryover from Gov. Jesse Ventura, and presumably will continue his radio reign under new WCCO boss Mick Anselmo.
Today I tuned in to WCCO to hear if T-Paw would take back the slams on Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and the integrity of the state’s election canvassing process that he aided and abetted during a Sean Hannity interview. (Repeating the phony car-ballot legend was enough to make Pawlenty one of Keith Olbermann’s “worst persons” on MSNBC last night.)
But Pawlenty’s communications honcho and radio sidekick Brian McClung said the boss was en route from the Republican governors conference and would miss the show today. Pawlenty’s stand-in, WCCO’s Jeanette Trompeter, proposed a ”Be Nice to Someone You Really Don’t Want to be Nice to Today” — which would have made the perfect segue to a gubernatorial mea culpa.
Pawlenty also missed an opportunity to salvage Minnesota’s reputation as a clean-election state during a nearly 10-minute interview with Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s “Hardball” last night. Instead the segment focused on Pawlenty’s take on the Republican Party’s future, and particularly Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s place in it. Sample exchange:
MATTHEWS (exasperated): Was [Palin] a drag on the ticket or not?
PAWLENTY (dodging): You look at politics like postmodern art.
Here’s the video:
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Comment posted November 16, 2008 @ 9:50 pm
But Pawlenty did go on the record Saturday. In Sunday Star-Tribune:
In an interview hours before Knaak’s news conference, Pawlenty told KTLK-FM host and Twin Cities attorney Ron Rosenbaum that he had complete confidence in the integrity of the recount that will be overseen by the state Canvassing Board. Ritchie chairs that five-person panel, which will determine voters’ intent on any challenged ballots.
“That five-person Canvassing Board … will run a fair and appropriate process, and they will render a fair and appropriate result,” Pawlenty said. “It’s in nobody’s best interest, whether you’re a Republican and Democrat or something else, to be taking shots unless there is some reason to do so. … Unless there is evidence, let’s not be throwing gasoline on the fire until we actually have some proof.”
For the whole article: http://www.startribune.com/local/34526584.html?elr=KArksUUUU
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