Unfortunately I missed the debate between Daschle and Thune on Meet the Press this morning, but as one would expect Jason Van Beek of South Dakota Politics and Jon Lauck of Daschle v. Thune were all over it.
From what I’ve heard informally, Daschle came off looking like a whiny little brat, starting aggressive and veering into petulance before the end. Personally, I’ve never thought Daschle was a great campaigner – he hasn’t had to be for two decades, and he’s never faced anyone as articulate and strong as John Thune. I do think this race will be close thanks to the many South Dakotans who are foolishly support Daschle on the basis of his “clout” (even though that should Daschle be re-elected, the knives are already out to replace him as leader of the Senate Democrats), but if anyone can beat Daschle, Thune is it.
I have the Daschle-Thune debate on tape, but haven’t watched it yet. I think I’ll judge for myself who bested whom rather than take the word of two GOP partisans whose sole ambition in life this year is to unseat Daschle.
I spent much of the day driving through South Dakota, cutting a path through mostly Democratic territory in the eastern third of the state, including Marshall, Day, Clark, Kingsbury, Brookings, Moody and Minnehaha Counties. I was a bit surprised to see the yard sign war was more intensely fought in the House rematch between Herseth and Diedrich than the Senate race. The GOP was ahead in both contests, with Thune besting Daschle 13 signs to 10, and Diedrich besting Herseth 29 to 22. The radio wars was all about Daschle and Thune however, and the ads were all quite hilarious. If South Dakota is really dominated by young women as the Daschle and Thune campaign spokepersons seem to indicate it is, I may consider moving there myself. I don’t believe I heard a male voice all day endorsing Daschle or Thune….only chicks between 18-25.
As for Minnesota, I drove through about a couple dozen counties in the western and northern regions of the state this weekend as well, and was struck by the varying levels of organization county-per-county. Republican counties like Lyon had almost all Democratic signs. Democratic counties like Grant had almost all Republican signs. There aren’t very many places where Kerry-Edwards yard signs are prominent, as the party isn’t mass distributing the yard signs. However, the Democratic stronghold of Swift County in west-central Minnesota had dozens of them in just a 25-mile stretch. The small town of Appleton was ground zero, with about 25 Kerry signs and 10 Bush signs on the main roads in and out of town. The Iron Range towns had their own Kerry-Edwards-Oberstar signs that were quite prominent as well. An interesting ride….and I’ll be taking another much shorter one through the southeast corner of the state during peak fall colors in another couple weeks. Hopefully, more clues will be revealed then.
Unfortunately, you’re depending on the wrong sources. Thune looked unprepared to deal with most of the issues that Russert brought up, seeming pretty ignorant about things he voted on as a congressman. I laughed when Thune said he had “anecdotal evidence” that Iraq had long-range nuclear missiles, then started talking about SCUD missiles. Russert also made Thune look like a bit of an idiot about the whole drought thing, which sunk him in 2002. Thune admitted he never criticized the president for his decision. Then he said Daschle “emboldens our enemies.”
I think this might be what ends it for Thune this year.