Tag Archives: john thune

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?

Thune VP buzz buzzing buzzily

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He’s not at the top of the list. We can’t all hail from Ohio, after all. But South Dakota’s own John Thune is in the mix as the quadrennial Veepstakes speculation enters the frenzied stage.

South Dakota's own John Thune is in the Veepstakes mix. Huzzah!

With Mitt Romney’s GOP nomination all but wrapped up, we have a few months ahead of us of media obsession over this potential game-changer.

I’ve seen Thune on various lists over the past weeks, heard his name escape the lips of TV pundits and even seen his photo in a montage while he got no mention in the accompanying article.

The latest to catch our attention here at the MDR is this piece from a Virginia paper that lists Thune as a fourth-tier(!) contender and labels him “a whitebread sandwich.” Well, I never.

He gets more prominent mention in this WaPo blog post.

My take – worth what you’re paying for it – is that he’s an attractive choice. Very unlikely to gaffe it via a live mic, knowledgeable on the requisite range of issues, comfortable with crowds of all income levels, not a bad bio and “impeccable conservative credentials,” according to another Washington Post assessment.

But my gut tells me he’d rather not. Not this time, anyway. It seems to me the upside is limited in an uphill race he wouldn’t control. The downside seems to have too much potential. Romney could gaffe it in a contagious way that would be difficult to recover from. A landslide defeat, not probable but possible, would hang over his head indefinitely. The rabbit hole has already proven a wild ride. Who knows what misadventures await?

Perhaps more interesting is that none of the pundits seems to think Thune will be Romney’s choice, but they all feel the need to include him in the mix. If that doesn’t say rising star, I don’t know what does. And there aren’t too many places left for a fella to rise to.

 

Nathan Daschle sees a new way

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Nathan Daschle, the son of former congressman and senator Tom Daschle, is no longer a registered Democrat.

Nathan Daschle is now an advocate for an independent movement to nominate someone for president who is not linked to either the Republican or Democratic parties.

The movement that has been dubbed Ruck.us — both a play on the term “ruckus,” and the rugby term for a group of players bound together. The founders, including people with histories with both major parties, think people are fed up with politics as it has long been practiced.

“We’re not saying politics would be better if we just had different people in there,” Daschle said in an interview with The Washington Post. “To the contrary, we’re saying it’s not the fault of the people; it’s the structures that have to change.”

Nathan’s father Tom was a party man who rose to the top level, serving 26 years in Congress. He was the longest-serving Democratic leader in party history and considered a bid for the White House before and after he lost his Senate seat to John Thune in 2004.

Nathan Daschle headed down that path after graduating from Harvard, serving as the executive director of the Democratic Governors Association from 2007-2010.

He now calls himself a “reformed lawyer and political operative” who wants to help carve a new way to alter policy and government.

“Nathan now dreams of a day when people can shed their partisan labels and organize freely around the issues they care about most,” he wrote on the Ruck.us home page.

Tom Daschle served the state and nation as he saw fit. Now, his son is doing the same thing in a different way.

 

South Dakota: Land of beautiful politicians

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“Maybe looks aren’t everything,” a recent New York Times story says, “but new research suggests that more physically attractive members of Congress get more coverage on network television.”

The research is based on “a survey of students, who rated House and Senate members in 2007 on a scale of attractiveness.”

Way at the bottom of the story, the top five most attractive members of Congress are listed. Little old South Dakota is the only state with two on the list:

Representative Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee; Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, Democrat of South Dakota; Senator Saxby Chambliss, Republican of Georgia; Representative Connie Mack, Republican of Florida; and Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota. Ms. Herseth Sandlin lost her House seat in 2010.

John Thune … and Bono?

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Sure, seeing John Thune campaign for Mitt Romney was expected. Romney needed help in Iowa and a Midwest conservative star like Thune was a good fit before the caucus that kicked off the 2012 presidential race.

But Thune and Bono, the Irish rock star, lead singer of U2 and oh-so-active activist who has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times? That seemed unlikely. Would those two men spend time together discussing hunger and AIDS in Africa?

Turns out, yes. As I reported in Monday’s Mitchell Daily Republic, Thune is part of a congressional delegation spending eight days in Africa. The six senators and one congresswoman met with Bono a few days ago, along with Joshua Bolten, the former chief of staff to President George W. Bush who was named interim CEO of ONE, the grassroots effort to relieve extreme poverty that Bono helped found.

Of course, “One” is also a classic U2 song with a message of tolerance and the need for a shared effort on this planet.

This is the kind of work and issues that a senator and a national figure needs to focus on. It can’t all be bashing the other side and bringing bacon home to voters.

President George W. Bush knew how to do the right thing on these issues. Bono has often said Bush was a great ally for Africa.

Thune will talk with me in a few days to offer more details. I look forward to learning more — and finding out what his favorite U2 song is. “Beautiful Day,” maybe?