By focusing on twin cities, GOP risks losing sight of the south

Marsha Mercer
Published: May 26, 2008

WASHINGTON

Nothing says capital-D Democrat like the lions of the left from Minnesota — Hubert Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy and Walter Mondale.

With such cozy ties, you’d think Democrats would be flocking to the Twin Cities this summer for their presidential nominating convention. And well might they be, had the Republicans not jumped in first
to claim the Twin Cities. The Democrats will meet in Denver Aug. 25.

Come Sept. 1, the party of George W. Bush will gather in the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. Visiting St. Paul this week, Republican National Committee chairman Robert “Mike” Duncan claimed
Minnesota will be in play in the general election, despite recent polls that show Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama would beat John McCain. He said Iowa and Wisconsin are also important swing states.

Minnesota hasn’t voted Republican for president since Nixon in 1972, but the GOP is encouraged by John Kerry’s beating Bush by only three points in 2004. Al Gore beat Bush by only two points in
Minnesota in 2000. And, pollsters say, if McCain were to choose Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty as his running mate, that could change everything.

Whatever. The Republicans could have taken their convention to Tampa-St. Petersburg, which was a finalist for the convention, and a state that’s really in play. The South has been solid for Republicans in presidential elections, but signs are that the South is getting squishy.

Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, cited the recent congressional win by Democrat Travis Childers in Mississippi as evidence that state will be in play this fall.

Republicans should be shoring up their base in the South rather than taping “Kick Me” signs on their backs in the stronghold of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party. They could have gone to Florida, where
George Bush’s brother was a popular governor. Instead, they’re taking their flag pins and funny hats to St. Paul, where Mayor Chris Coleman, a DFLer, said in “welcome” remarks on the city’s Web
site, “This opportunity is not about politics — it is about business.”

The four-day convention is expected to bring an economic jolt worth $150 million to $160 million. But for the political parties, the conventions are about nothing but politics — firing up the faithful, reintroducing the nominee and launching the fall campaign.

If anything needs a relaunch, it’s brand McCain, whose image as a maverick and a crusader against special interests has been tarnished by a barrage of news stories about his close connections to lobbyists.

But the convention’s location inevitably brings up sore points.

McCain’s first choice to run the convention was a lobbyist, Doug Goodyear, who once represented the military junta in Burma. When Newsweek reported the connection and that Goodyear’s firm was paid $348,000 in 2002 to burnish the junta’s image, Goodyear resigned.

Guests arriving at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport surely will be reminded that it’s the site of the “Larry Craig bathroom,” so named for the Republican senator from Idaho who was arrested last June for allegedly soliciting sex in a stall.

The fun at Republican expense has already begun. The St. Paul Saints baseball team this weekend is passing out a “bobblefoot” keepsake that consists of a miniature bathroom stall with lower legs and feet.

One of the feet “taps.” It’s supposedly in honor of National Tap Dance Day, the Star Tribune reported.

My guess is Larry Craig won’t attend the baseball game or the Republican convention. But Democrats in the home of Humphrey, McCarthy and Mondale won’t let the Republicans forget Craig. And
Republicans in the South may not find the Yankee humor aimed at their party funny at all.

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