Wetterling’s Failing Campaign Of Sleaze

One of the more interesting House races has been the CD-6 race here in Minnesota, between state legislator Michelle Bachmann and child safety activist Patty Wetterling. Wetterling’s son was abducted 20 years ago, never to be seen again, and she’s a naturally sympathetic figure. However, Wetterling has done everything she can to squander that sympathy by running attack ads that are so odious that even the liberal Minneapolis press has been calling her on it. Wetterling has run a campaign ad that contains distortions of Bachmann’s record that are completely beyond the pale. Wetterling has run a campaign so dirty and so negative that Bachmann has a double-digit lead in the latest Reuters/Zogby poll — which is consistent with other polls showing Bachmann ahead.*

This has been one of the dirtiest and most disgusting campaigns, and Wetterling’s attack ads have bombarded Twin Cities airwaves for weeks now — the effect of which appears to have turned off voters to her. Thankfully in this state, sleaze just doesn’t sell, and Wetterling and the DNC are learning the hard way that cheap distortions and outright lies won’t save a sinking campaign.

* Except, of course, for the Star-Tribune Minnesota Poll which showed Wetterling ahead by 8 — which is why the Minnesota Poll is an unmitigated piece of garbage used strictly as DFL propaganda.

4 thoughts on “Wetterling’s Failing Campaign Of Sleaze

  1. Twenty years is too long to sympathize with someone willing to exploit family grief for political opportunity — even in Minnesota. What’s sad is Wetterling herself is not strong enough as a person to look beyond her conceits at the DFL’s exploitation of her family tragedy. She’s not a politician; she’s just another weakling the DFL can push around. When she loses, they’ll just throw her under the bus and find someone else.

  2. Once again, you’ve cherry-picked another Zogby poll to feign credibility to because it confirms your desires. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle of Zogby’s laughable poll and the Strib poll. I have not seen any of the ads currently running against Bachmann, but her lunatic history speaks for itself…..squatting behind bushes to spy on gay rights rallies at the Capitol, telling wives they should be submissive to the will of their husbands, referring to workers’ safety protections as “Marxist”. The woman is unhinged and far too conservative even for the Republican-leaning district she’s running in (I wonder if the 30% Catholic population in MN-06 is comfortable voting for whose religious denomination calls the pope the antichrist).

    That’s not to Bachmann won’t win with the GOP slant of this district and her weak, easy-to-demagogue opponent, but she’s a walking PR nightmare for a district full of socially conservative but economically populist Catholics and country club yuppies. She’ll embarrass Minnesota on a recurring basis in Congress and will have a target on her back every two years until she’s eventually taken out. But I’m in no way ready to concede Wetterling’s defeat yet. With absolutely zero GOP strength at the top of the ticket in Minnesota, many of the nutballs Bachmann needs to win are likely to sit this election out while the independents give the benefit of the doubt to DFLers just as they are on the rest of the ticket in Minnesota this year.

  3. Mark, you’re living in a fantasy world. What color is the sky? Minnesota is becoming alot more conservative than you think, which given the desperation evident in your jagged composition, you already realize but are as yet unreconciled.

  4. To single out Wetterling as running a dirty campaign is pretty ridiculous. Both side have been doing it. Neither has run a very effective campaign–Bachmann will eventually be saved only by the facts that the district is too heavily GOP and none of the moderates know where Bachmann really prioritizes her issues. Wetterling had a lot off promise but Tinklenberg should have been the nominee.

    CD-6: Bachmann
    CD-1: Walz
    Gov: Hatch

    You heard it here first, folks.

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