Minnesotans have experience with third party wet dreams. Look at Ventura’s glowins list of achievements. Governor Baldy (who now lives in Mexico and who lost his love for Minnesota when the press wouldn’t kowtow to him) managed to make it possible for Minnesotans to buy fireworks without sneaking across the border to other states. How impressive.

No one is telling Barkley not to “speak up”. In the broadcast debates with Franken and Coleman, he kept repeating the same odd, illogical stuff. “Look at these guys tear each other up! Look at how negative they are! Vote for me instead!” Not much of a platform.

Minnesotans are now “sucking up” the results of Barkley’s pipe dream. I’d say that is what sucks.

Barkley had positions on most topics, from cutting deficits to the Iraq War. It is a vote for a choice. You say Barkley is to blame, but he had 19% of the vote. I say Franken caused Barkley to lose. Or Coleman did. It doesn’t really matter, does it?

Eventually, you have to accept a candidate lost. But to use that candidate as a scapegoat?

If Franken or Coleman were good enough, they would have had enough support to break away from the possibility of a recount.

So basically, you said Barkley shouldn’t speak up because there is a recession. If we were in Vietnam, would you say Barkley shouldn’t have spoken up because it would hurt morale? There are millions of factors that go into an election. If you fail for whatever reason in your goal, deal with it. Do better next time and suck it up.

All Barkley had to say during his campaign was that the two-party system is bad. It is a weak argument. Barkley would make a lousy Senator.

I don’t want to hear a single person who voted for Barkley complaining about the state budget. This recount and its accompanying costs have proven to be a burden for Minnesota. So all the hypocrites who are wringing their hands about the deficit can face up to the fact that they have played their little role in contributing to the problem. Minnesota didn’t need to pay for an expensive electoral food fight in the midst of a serious recession.