Mark Dayton started the speechtacular off; followed by Al Franken, Tim Walz, Keith Ellison, Jim Hightower (dressed appropriately in Texan garb complete with what had to be at least a 50 gallon hat), down through newly elected State Rep Rena Moran.

All told a progressive/populist story, all told of stories that didn’t get told – all talked of how the messaging didn’t get out. Because it’s a good message; Senator Franken decimated the “government can’t creat jobs!” TeaBagger argument. Just killed it. But, if a tree falls in a forest, and nobody hears it, did it make a sound?

Afterwards, I asked a lot of attendees what they were walking away with; virtually all were talking about a re-dedication to “getting the messaging out.” When asked how to do just that, they all talked about door-knocking, phone banking, one-on-one conversations, yada yada yada to tell the progressive story. None seemed to see that that’s all good and well; (indeed, the story can’t be told without it); but that and that alone simply isn’t enough.

No one seemed to realize how the GOP has taken technology and social media by storm to propagate the “Obama is a Muslim” and “Obama was born in Kenya” and “Get your gov’t hands off my Medicare” and “Norm Coleman was robbed” and “Mark Ritchie rigged the last one for Al and is going to do it again for Mark Dayton ” and…. well, Gentle Readers, you should get the point.

Here’s my point: in the seven days since the election, everyone seems to be talking about the fact that there is a messaging problem; no one seems to be talking about how to fix the messaging distribution infrastructure so the message gets out.

I’ll be very clear: the GOP looks at social media as a tool; on our side, social media is looked at as a social disease.

Hey – everyone knows social media is NOT the end-all; NOT the be-all. Social Media is simply a link in the chain.

It’s a link the GOP is exploiting, because from my vantage point, it’s the progressive’s weakest link.

There’s a problem here, Gentle Readers, and it needs to be fixed.

(cross posted from MnProgressiveProject.com; comments welcome there)

Each of July’s segments are also posted on our Democratic Visions YouTube Channel. The Al Franken segment is a shortened version of a video Jeff Strate produced last year but now includes exclusive footage of Al’s victory rally on July 1 in St. Paul. That footage was lensed by yours truly, the ol’ TwoPutter.

First up, below the fold, is the Steve Kelley segment, followed by Minnetonka Council Member Amber Greves’ segment, with Jeff’s Al Franken segment finishing out the show.

It’s a good show – so watch tonight if you can, or go get some popcorn and watch right now!

(crossposted from MnProgressiveProject)

St. Paul- Republican Party of Minnesota Chairman-elect Tony Sutton today issued the following statement regarding the Minnesota Supreme Court’s ruling in the U.S. Senate race.

“Today’s ruling wrongly disenfranchised thousands of Minnesotans who deserve to have their votes counted. Alongside Senator Coleman, the Republican Party of Minnesota has fought to make sure every vote counts and all voters are treated fairly and uniformly. As we move forward, our deeply flawed election system must be dramatically improved to ensure our state’s elections are fair, accurate and reliable.” (Republican Party of Minnesota)

In other words, “Norm wuz robbed.”

Classless.

That’s the way the state GOP Party was under former Chairman Ron Carey; that’s the way it will remain under new Chairman Tony Sutton.

(crossposted from MnProgressiveProject)

What Bachmann MotorMouth Overdrive said, BEFORE she said she was gonna break the law, is worth repeating. Here’s the transcript:

(0:25) I come from Minnesota. We’re still in a recount with our Senate race between Senator Norm Coleman and the challenger, Al Franken. Senator Coleman won the race on Election Day but that was challenged repeatedly over and over with what we feel may be fraudulent votes and very concerned about what goes forward.

“fradulent votes”, eh? That’s what you “think”, Michele?

Why, just the other day (June 1st, to be exact) Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Christopher Dietzen said he saw “no evidence or fraud or misconduct.” And Justice Dietzen said that in court.

That same day, in that same court, another Minnesota Supreme Court Justice asked Norm Coleman’s attorney, Joe Friedberg, very pointedly if their were any instances of fraud. Norm Coleman’s attorney – NORM COLEMAN’S ATTORNEY – answered emphatically “absolutely not” and added that there was no fraud of any kind; election, voter or otherwise.

But, hey – today’s GOP playbook is ignore the debunking and repeat, Repeat, and REPEAT the debunked stuff over and Over and OVER, as Bachmann just did: the “fraudulent vote (debunked) theory.”

In the rightwingworld, Norm “Smokescreen” Coleman “wuz robbed.” That’s their story, and they’re stickin’ to it.

(crossposted from MnProgressiveProject)

What I’ve seen is the GOP taking this theory, and applying it to politics: it doesn’t matter if the policy is any good; it only matters that the voter thinks it’s good. As a result, we’ve ended up with policies like the “Clear Skies” initiative, that allows more pollution – not less, and “Healthy Forests” which is really healthy if you own a lumber company.

The GOP does this over and over and over. Today, we’re seeing it again, and today’s version is the Swiftboating of Al Franken. The GOP is throwing slime at Al Franken’s greatest strength, and they don’t care if it’s true or not; they only care that voters think it’s true.

I just got back from a long road trip to play a whole bunch of golf. The highlight was a memorial tournament for an old boss of mine. Keeping in the nostalgia mood, I brought along a copy of Al Franken’s “Lies – And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them” for a re-read. A couple of thoughts hit me as I went through the book; one of which is the more things change the more they stay the same.

In Al’s chapter called “Who Created The Tone?”, Franken discusses how candidate Bush talked about changing the tone in Washington, D.C.; about being a uniter and not a divider. Meanwhile, GOPer surrogates were providing plenty of nasty tone. For instance, they were providing the push-polling used against John McCain in South Carolina – it doesn’t get much nastier than that. Fast-forward to today, and Norm Coleman is saying “We need uniters, not dividers” while his surrogates are doing everything they can to divide, and as divisively as they can.

Later, in Al’s Chapter called “I Grow Discouraged About The Tone”, Al discusses how divided – partisan, if you will – Washington, D.C. had become. And we all know it has become and not just in Washington, D.C.; for instance, a high school friend accused me of being a “TRAITOR!” for opposing Iraq. I had to remind him that I was the one that had enlisted for service; not him. Is anyone reading this actually encouraged about the tone in politics, today?

Later in the book, Al discussed the Wellstone-Coleman campaign of 2002, and how the GOP went extremely negative. Coleman tried to position himself above the fray; distancing himself from his surrogate’s dirty work. Sound familiar?

Throughout the book, Al clearly demonstrates the mendacity, the lies, that are so coldly and calculatedly tossed out by the GOP. In the beginning, Al lays out a pathology of the smearing of Al Gore. Today, they’re smearing Al.

And it is a Swiftboating; Al’s well-know for his honesty. So, they attack his strength. That’s the essence of a Swiftboating; attack the strength with reckless disregard for the truth. Honesty is out the window in today’s GOP, as their operatives only care that the voter thinks the smears are true. It’s wrong; it must be stopped – and the only way to stop it is at the ballot box. This latest attack on Al Franken has only steeled my resolve to beat Norm Coleman.

(this post originally published at MnBlue.com)