Mike, I know what you did with your 2 mill ...
The breaking news at the end of February was that Mike Ciresi had donated $2,000,000.00 to his campaign. As an Al Franken supporter I wondered what they were going to spend it on. Now I know what some of it was spent on: two full-color glossy 8x11s that open into 16x11 spreads.
Mike and his campaign staff must realize how far behind Al they are and have decided that attacking is the only way to get back into the race. They have not built the grassroots campaign they intended and cannot compete on Mike's message alone. The most amazing part of this development is that Mike is likely trailing Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer in the delegate count after this last weekend's senate district conventions.
-- cross-posted from mnblue.com, home of the Norm Coleman Weasel Meter --
There's also the same layout, full-color glossy attacking Al on healthcare. I couldn't find it online or on Mike's site. Here's my transcript of the attacks in the healthcare piece:
- Al Franken doesn't want national health care reform - instead he supports mandates that all 50 states create their own separate health care plans.
- Al Franken's strategy is bad for individuals who live and work in different states, and leaves health care coverage up to the whims of 50 different governors and state legislatures.
- ROCHESTER POST BULLETIN
Senate Candidates debate how to deliver health care
By Matthew Stolle | JANUARY 21, 2008
"...'I don't think that the country is ready to go to single-payer national health care,' Franken said.
His plan instead would direct every state to develop universal coverage plans of their own - in effect, 50 individual laboratories - and the federal government would cover the 'bridge costs.'"
Calling on states to fix the problem is not the strong leadership we need to reform health care. People need immediate help and cannot afford to wait for states to develop plans. Franken's strategy will be a mess for companies who have employees in different states.
Underlying the Post Bulletin quote is an image of the states broken apart and the map disintegrating.
There are four things that are interesting about Mike's attacks.
- The first and the most important point is that Mike doesn't recognize that the health insurance companies, HMOs and pharmaceutical companies are the bad guys in the fight to get universal health insurance. He does not talk about the fact that these industries are making money from denying people medical care. Mike does not recognize the essential truth of what Michael Moore documented in his movie "Sicko."
- While Mike mentions that Al thinks the country isn't ready to go to single-payer, Mike is against single-payer. Al supports it, but doesn't think it'll happen immediately. Al has said on numerous occasions that he would support a single-payer system but that in the current environment in the Senate, doesn't think it will go anywhere.
- Mike fails to mention that Al wants single-payer for all kids.
- The capital letters in the Iraq piece reminds me of a certain Republican blogger who PUTS ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING IN ALL CAPS LIKE HE'S SHOUTING ALL THE TIME.
-- cross-posted from mnblue.com, home of the Norm Coleman Weasel Meter --