Tough Night in the Capitol City

A double blow Tuesday:

Dwayne Roloson and the Wild defense let Wayne Gretzky's Coyotes put up 3 in the first period. It was a hole too deep, and despite owning Phoenix in the 3rd period, the Wild fell short.

Also Tuesday, the voters of St. Paul turned away from my guy, Randy Kelly, and put the Other Guy in the mayor's office. It wasn't even close. As I posted here earlier, the whole thing swung on Kelly's endorsement of George Bush for reelection last time around. Kelly, a lifetime Democrat, used his mind (rather than marching orders from the part) in aking his decision, and for that reason alone, St. Paul tossed out someone who was doing a very good job on the job.

Basically everything any normal people want and expect from a mayor and the city was there. I say 'normal,' because there are always the crowds for whom there is never enough of whatever their world hinges upon.

Right out of the gate, during his victory speech, the Other Guy told 2 lies, and managed to contradict himself with them. He first said the election was not about Bush, but about the city of St. Paul. Preposterous. Other Guy never ran on anything. For months and montsh, all he ever said was that he was not Kelly, he didn't like Governor Pawlenty, and he hated that bad, bad Bush. After that, it was all lefty boilerplate, happy talk, and never a hint of how to pay for the promised New Upotia. The second fib, and the completion of the circle of fraud, was in his then immediate flaming of the supposed failed Bush policies that are punishing our cities. Yea, like what? Like all the federal money that props up transit? Like all the Homeland Security money that pours from that humongus federal spigot? All of a sudden it IS all about Bush. That's because there's nothing to criticize the sitting mayor for.

There's the ultimate punchline. Kelly's endorsement of Bush didn't mean anything. John Kerry carried the whole thing, and the city is healthy in spite of the outcome of the 2004 presidential election. Without that albatross/endorsement dangling around Kelly's neck, as Speed Gibson points out, a ham sandwitch could have been elected. If Other Guy dares use the word 'mandate' so long as he is mayor, I buy full page ads reminding him and the city that only 27% of eligible voters showed up.

Anyway, I'm still scratching my head over the whole thing. Here's some Soucheray for closure:

If Kelly hadn't endorsed Bush there would be a real race. In fact, this has been so easy for Coleman I wonder how many people are now wishing they had run for mayor. Which begs an interesting question. If Kelly is such a shrewd, bullying, tough-minded, get-his-own-way kind of mayor — these things are said about him all the time — then why did he make such a fateful error when it came to endorsing a presidential candidate? These guys take meetings to select the right socks and this guy completely misreads the democratic intensity of his own city?

These other things that are said, the bullying, the insistence that it is his way or the highway, could not possibly be known by the public . . . (a)nd yet his social skills are freely discussed as though he acts this way with the public. I haven't seen it. The people he deals with most closely insist that they do see it and thus their clamor for change and Coleman's landslide popularity in the polls, to the point where Coleman hasn't really had to say very much at all, much less how he intends to pay for his various promises.

If the city is functioning smoothly — it is — and Kelly's alleged bullying style is not generally seen by the public — it isn't — that leaves the endorsement of George W. Bush as the reason Kelly is going down in flames.