Tag Archives: Barack Obama

Washington Post: Romney should emulate Thune approach

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The way to defeat Barack Obama is tied to South Dakota’s epic 2004 Senate race.

At least that’s the take of a Washington Post blogger. Chris Cillizza writes that Mitt Romney faces a problem this fall: People like Obama. Some people who disagree with his policies like him personally. So how does the presumed GOP candidate counter that?

Crillizza suggests looking at how John Thune defeated Tom Daschle in the most expensive, high-profile Senate race in South Dakota history:

“Thune and his campaign didn’t try to make the race about personalities. Instead of arguing that Daschle was a bad guy, Thune made the case that Daschle was a good guy with the wrong priorities for the state,” Cillizza wrote. “That, at the end of the day, everyone liked Daschle but that Daschle had lost touch with the perspective of average South Dakotans.”

If that was the reason, it worked. Thune defeated Daschle as South Dakota voters tossed aside the most powerful Democrat in the Senate, and a man who had served the state for 26 years.

Obama has a much shorter history with American voters. But Thune was a strong, talented campaigner fresh off a razor-thin loss to Tim Johnson in 2002. Voters knew and liked him. Romney hasn’t shown great style so far, fumbling and stumbling often.

Romney, whom Thune has endorsed and campaigned for, may follow the South Dakota Republican’s approach. If he does, will what worked in South Dakota be effective nationally?

And isn’t it amazing how that eight-year-old Senate race has lingered on the state and national scene?

GOP circus won’t stop here

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Show’s over folks. Move along. Nothing to see here.

Rick Santorum’s announcement that he is quitting, formally known as suspending his presidential campaign, ends what little suspense was left in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, will still be on the South Dakota ballot, however.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was the early favorite, had the most money, the support of GOP insiders and won the most delegates in primaries and caucuses. Santorum finally yielded to the math and ended his campaign Tuesday.

This means that 2012 won’t be like 2008, when the presidential circus made an extended stop in South Dakota. Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both made several stops in SD, telling us how concernced they were about crop prices, Indian issues, rural sustainability and anything and everything else they could think of to win a few votes.

It appears there will be few or no campaign events and stops in our state now.

Romney, who was endorsed by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., still may breeze through before the June 5 vote. Rep. Ron Paul, of Texas, said he’s in the race through the convention, so he may make an appearance. Who knows what’s up with former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who admitted this weekend Romney was close to wrapping it up.

SD political junkies, writers and politicians hoped against hope we would see a repeat of four years ago, but it didn’t happen. Should we stick with a late primary or shift to an early one, despite the cost, in an effort to have a say in the presidential process?

Not just Kenyan — Obama is Irish!

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The president is Irish.

To prove it, he drank a Guinness today in a pub in Moneygall, the Irish town where a part of his mother’s family came from decades ago. Obama talked, kidded some people and then took several drinks of the beer.

That’s better than he did in Rapid City in 2008, when he stopped in The Firehouse on a Saturday afternoon and declined a beer when it was offered. He did take an order of onion rings and other appetizers with him.

Presidents have long sipped beer when on the campaign trail and a few have stopped in Ireland, where alcohol, storytelling and politics are three of the main attractions.

President Kennedy famously enjoyed his trip to Ireland in 1963 and President Reagan hoisted a brew or two in bars during public appearances.
To see Obama quaff the rich, dark beer, go to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNovi9vTTho

Where’s YOUR birth certificate?

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Now that’s finally settled, for everyone but those on the lunatic fringe who can’t be persuaded with facts: Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honululu, Hawaii, on Aug. 4, 1961. He’s a Leo.

The White House released Obama’s long-form birth certificate Wednesday morning and the president addressed the issue, saying he was bemused and surprised by how long this false story has persisted and why some people continued to believe he wasn’t an American, despite his release of a short-form certificate, two newspaper reports published days after his birth and eyewitness accounts of Obama as an infant in Hawaii.

Of course, some people hate Obama so much, and wanted to use the “birther” issue against him, that they won’t be persuaded. It makes you wonder if they know where their birth certificate is. How do we know they’re really Americans?

Where’s yours? Should we demand candidiates for school boards, city council seats and county offices produce one? Or should we demand this only from black people with a name that some people find unusual?

To watch Obama discuss why he released it and how irritated he was by serious issues being overwhelmed by “sideshows” like this, click this link: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=13467987