You Can't Bring a Spork to a Gun Battle
10 Comments Published by Loosestrife on Monday, January 14, 2008 at 6:12 AM.
The political career of Farheen Hakeem, performance artist turned "comedienne" turned perpetual candidate, started a new chapter recently as she fairly leaped to fill Neva Walker's Minnesota House 61B seat when Walker announced that she as not going to seek reelection.
It will likely be Hakeem's third losing campaign in four years, but battered remnants of the local Green Party hope otherwise. A victory would salvage a few more months of relevance for a decaying party.
In any case, DFL candidate, Jeff Hayden would do well to ramp up his campaign now. This is Hakeem's best shot so far at an elected political office, and she has a gift for political performance perhaps greater even than that of the old snake, Dean Zimmermann. She has effectively kept her name in the air since announcing her intention to run and launched a campaign website almost immediately. Her status as a female Muslim candidate guarantees her some degree of media attention, especially since Hakeem presents as a complete copy ready newspaper story, the adult bits excised in the interest of family values. Who doesn't love a Girl Scout troop leader?
Hayden's story is less splashy, and his victory will be dependent on organization and volunteers. (A little fund raising might help too.) Keith Ellison's campaign is a model here--a systematic approach to structuring the volunteer effort. In his 2005 race for the 8th Ward council seat, Hayden failed to organize his base, resulting in pathetic turnout in crucial pockets of potential Hayden support and a third place finish in the primary.
He could also start articulating his platform in clear terms, which would put him miles beyond the vaporware of Hakeem's politics. The issues section of her website is standard issue nonspecific liberal claptrap flavored by Hakeem's misplaced braggadocio, the spongy environmental issues section a classic of "Green" ignorance of environmental issues beyond what they read in the newspapers.
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Farheen Hakeem was probably not happy to see Ken Avidor suddenly appear on the Minneapolis Issues List asking questions about her documented support of convicted felon, Dean Zimmermann, questions she promptly ignored, letting her boy "street team" haunting the list--Tamir Nolley, Guy Gambill, Eric Oines primarily--throw up red herrings.
Avidor's direct questions to Hakeem regarding her position on transportation issues were similarly deflected by her team while she remained silent. That her website foregrounds community input then uses the Hiawatha LRT line as an example where community input was ignored may help us to assess whether Hakeem can be counted on to support of LRT and transit if she were to gain the legislature.
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Hakeem did eventually awaken from her slumber and respond to Eva Young's demand that the candidate speak to her intention in attending DFL caucuses in light of a recent Southside Pride story that quotes an email from Hakeem that she would be "promoting a 'no endorsement' for 61B." Young also asked for Hakeem to post the full text of this email to Southside Pride.
"Done" declared Hakeem as she presented to the list a confusing mashup of emails that presumably does not include the email in question--the one where she does or doesn't say whether she was going to the DFL caucuses to block endorsement. Maybe I missed it.
I declare shenanigans.
***********************
It will be crucial for Hayden to turn out his supporters on February 5--regardless of Hakeem's protestations that she was misunderstood and Ed Felien's pending retraction on behalf of Dennis Geissinger, who wrote the Southside Pride Story. Who knows what the Hakeem posse has in store?
Hakeem's coronation will be March 4th at the Green Party caucuses. I encourage Jeff Hayden to drop in.
--Loosestrife
It will likely be Hakeem's third losing campaign in four years, but battered remnants of the local Green Party hope otherwise. A victory would salvage a few more months of relevance for a decaying party.
In any case, DFL candidate, Jeff Hayden would do well to ramp up his campaign now. This is Hakeem's best shot so far at an elected political office, and she has a gift for political performance perhaps greater even than that of the old snake, Dean Zimmermann. She has effectively kept her name in the air since announcing her intention to run and launched a campaign website almost immediately. Her status as a female Muslim candidate guarantees her some degree of media attention, especially since Hakeem presents as a complete copy ready newspaper story, the adult bits excised in the interest of family values. Who doesn't love a Girl Scout troop leader?
Hayden's story is less splashy, and his victory will be dependent on organization and volunteers. (A little fund raising might help too.) Keith Ellison's campaign is a model here--a systematic approach to structuring the volunteer effort. In his 2005 race for the 8th Ward council seat, Hayden failed to organize his base, resulting in pathetic turnout in crucial pockets of potential Hayden support and a third place finish in the primary.
He could also start articulating his platform in clear terms, which would put him miles beyond the vaporware of Hakeem's politics. The issues section of her website is standard issue nonspecific liberal claptrap flavored by Hakeem's misplaced braggadocio, the spongy environmental issues section a classic of "Green" ignorance of environmental issues beyond what they read in the newspapers.
*********************
Farheen Hakeem was probably not happy to see Ken Avidor suddenly appear on the Minneapolis Issues List asking questions about her documented support of convicted felon, Dean Zimmermann, questions she promptly ignored, letting her boy "street team" haunting the list--Tamir Nolley, Guy Gambill, Eric Oines primarily--throw up red herrings.
Avidor's direct questions to Hakeem regarding her position on transportation issues were similarly deflected by her team while she remained silent. That her website foregrounds community input then uses the Hiawatha LRT line as an example where community input was ignored may help us to assess whether Hakeem can be counted on to support of LRT and transit if she were to gain the legislature.
*****************
Hakeem did eventually awaken from her slumber and respond to Eva Young's demand that the candidate speak to her intention in attending DFL caucuses in light of a recent Southside Pride story that quotes an email from Hakeem that she would be "promoting a 'no endorsement' for 61B." Young also asked for Hakeem to post the full text of this email to Southside Pride.
"Done" declared Hakeem as she presented to the list a confusing mashup of emails that presumably does not include the email in question--the one where she does or doesn't say whether she was going to the DFL caucuses to block endorsement. Maybe I missed it.
I declare shenanigans.
***********************
It will be crucial for Hayden to turn out his supporters on February 5--regardless of Hakeem's protestations that she was misunderstood and Ed Felien's pending retraction on behalf of Dennis Geissinger, who wrote the Southside Pride Story. Who knows what the Hakeem posse has in store?
Hakeem's coronation will be March 4th at the Green Party caucuses. I encourage Jeff Hayden to drop in.
--Loosestrife
Some random thoughts on the first real contest of the '08 Presidential Race.
The Inconvenient Truth
There is an Al Gore shaped hole in the middle of this election, not because he would necessarily be the front runner but because he would at least make global warming and peak oil real issues that the Democratic candidates would have to address. Following the campaign thus far, I find it fascinating that no candidate is talking bluntly and consistently about the changes that the American people face in the next decade. Oil reached $100 per barrel the day before the caucuses. Someday soon that will seem cheap.
Within 5 years there will be no permanent ice at the north pole.
"The Audacity of Hope," indeed.
In Praise of John Edwards
John Edwards at least says that sacrifices will be necessary to address energy and environmental issues. Granted, he should be doing that a lot more. I think he has missed an opportunity to broaden the appeal of his campaign by not talking about the environment more.
Regardless, of all the Democratic or Republican candidates in this race, or any race going back to Fred Harris, Edwards has done the most to focus attention on corporate control of our economy, our future, our lives. In the week running up to the caucuses he managed to grab the floor and relentlessly toss the unpleasant concepts of corporate greed, poverty, and class inequity onto the national stage under the feet of the less "angry" candidates.
Send him a check. We, collectively speaking, need to keep him in this race in order to keep these issues alive. Send him a letter and tell him to step up on global warming and energy issues.
I still retain a smidgen of audacious hope that he could win the nomination. Even if that is fool's gold, I still have a lot of admiration for John and Elizabeth Edwards, who have taken Ralph Nader's critique of our failed democracy through the Democratic party process to a much larger audience. That is no small feat.
Dennis the Menace
Dennis Kucinich emerged as a real cynic by comparison; his finger in the wind, he joined the bipartisan Obama bandwagon rather than instructing his delegates to go to Edwards, his political ally on most issues. Last night on Bill Moyer's Journal, Kucinich came across not as a flake but as a fake, willing to abandon his political convictions for political convenience. Moyers, who said that many Kucinich supporters had emailed him asking that he get Dennis to explain why he abandoned Edwards for Obama, asked Kucinich the question straight out. A dead eyed Dennis danced without ever giving a cogent answer, at best uttering this timeless bit of evasion, "The why of it would probably require more time than we have."
Elsewhere, Kucinich whined about not being included in the New Hampshire debate and not being taken seriously.
It was painful to watch a dying political career, but I will never take Dennis Kucinich seriously again. Many of his former supporters won't either. Hang it up, Mr. Kucinich.
Of Money, Moxie, and Triangulation
Barack Obama's victory in Iowa was, in part, bought. The actual amounts of money spent by the Clinton and Obama campaigns are hard to discern, but I would hazard a guess of more than $20 million in both cases. Obama's campaign said as much. Edwards is getting ridiculed for claiming that his second place finish was a kind of victory since his campaign spent about 1/5th (1/6th depending on the source) of that amount. He has a point, however.
It is obvious that Obama has star quality, that he is a magnetic figure, some even say he is Kennedyesque (John not Teddy).
He certainly has a deep smoker's voice, and his post caucus speech was booming and full of gravitas. Obama's crass imitation of MLK's cadence at the beginning of the speech gives me pause, however, an example of overreaching that smacks of poor judgment. I fear that it will come back to haunt him if he becomes the Democratic nominee, when Republican attack ads repeat it over and over until it becomes irritating and seemingly insincere--especially when contrasted to footage of King himself.
What gives me bigger pause is that Obama now seems to be the most conservative of the Democratic front runners, triangulating in a manner worthy of the best of them all, Bill Clinton, while repeating the mantras of hope and change. I am not convinced that Obama is an agent of change anymore than Hillary Clinton. I know that his "change" will not alter the corporate domination of our government.
And don't write off Hil just yet. You know that the Clinton team was fully caffeinated Friday morning, brainstorming at a feverish pace, with Bill Clinton, one of the most successful and slickest politicians of my lifetime, engaged and holding forth.
Now, Obama is the one perfectly set up for a fall--I can picture Bill's little smile as he considers the possibilities.
President Huckabee?
The Democrats would do well to take the Mike Huckabee, a very apt pupil of former president Clinton, victory in Iowa seriously--it was big political story in its own right. Outspent by Mitt Romney approximately 20 to 1, the Baptist preacher, nonetheless, won easily.
While the Dems can take great comfort in the massive turnout that they generated in Iowa, the meaning of that turnout is not so straightforward as might be first suspected, and Huckabee is something that modern day Democrats have never faced, a genuine southern Republican populist.
Granted , Huckabee will lose in New Hampshire and will be unmercifully gutted by certain elements of the Republican establishment. The cannier Repugs might figure out, however, that Huckabee is their best chance of winning the general election, recognizing that George W. Bush was in fact stylistically a populist candidate, despite what the Democrats might think, and that Bill Clinton was too, while Al Gore, John Kerry, and Bush I were all dry-fuck patricians. Bob Dole was old and amusing, much like McCain will be if he gets the nomination--their moments both having passed them by.
Notwithstanding stolen elections, folksy has good winning percentage in presidential elections since Nixon/McGovern, and Huckabee is nothing if not folksy. He is smarter than he is given credit for, and that makes him especially dangerous. He plays guitar and returns compassion to the Christian lexicon in a way that W never really pulled off. He has a built in base all over the south. Plus, he can talk to southern blacks.
Can't you picture good ol' Mike pluggin' in his guitar and playing behind a rocking black choir somewhere in Alabama?
I'm just saying.
**************
I'll occasionally weigh in with more thoughts as the election season continues. For now, I am ponying up for John Edwards. Here's hoping that all the real issues aren't buried under a series of mud slides or obscured by vaporous clouds of change and hope.
--Loosestrife
The Inconvenient Truth
There is an Al Gore shaped hole in the middle of this election, not because he would necessarily be the front runner but because he would at least make global warming and peak oil real issues that the Democratic candidates would have to address. Following the campaign thus far, I find it fascinating that no candidate is talking bluntly and consistently about the changes that the American people face in the next decade. Oil reached $100 per barrel the day before the caucuses. Someday soon that will seem cheap.
Within 5 years there will be no permanent ice at the north pole.
"The Audacity of Hope," indeed.
In Praise of John Edwards
John Edwards at least says that sacrifices will be necessary to address energy and environmental issues. Granted, he should be doing that a lot more. I think he has missed an opportunity to broaden the appeal of his campaign by not talking about the environment more.
Regardless, of all the Democratic or Republican candidates in this race, or any race going back to Fred Harris, Edwards has done the most to focus attention on corporate control of our economy, our future, our lives. In the week running up to the caucuses he managed to grab the floor and relentlessly toss the unpleasant concepts of corporate greed, poverty, and class inequity onto the national stage under the feet of the less "angry" candidates.
Send him a check. We, collectively speaking, need to keep him in this race in order to keep these issues alive. Send him a letter and tell him to step up on global warming and energy issues.
I still retain a smidgen of audacious hope that he could win the nomination. Even if that is fool's gold, I still have a lot of admiration for John and Elizabeth Edwards, who have taken Ralph Nader's critique of our failed democracy through the Democratic party process to a much larger audience. That is no small feat.
Dennis the Menace
Dennis Kucinich emerged as a real cynic by comparison; his finger in the wind, he joined the bipartisan Obama bandwagon rather than instructing his delegates to go to Edwards, his political ally on most issues. Last night on Bill Moyer's Journal, Kucinich came across not as a flake but as a fake, willing to abandon his political convictions for political convenience. Moyers, who said that many Kucinich supporters had emailed him asking that he get Dennis to explain why he abandoned Edwards for Obama, asked Kucinich the question straight out. A dead eyed Dennis danced without ever giving a cogent answer, at best uttering this timeless bit of evasion, "The why of it would probably require more time than we have."
Elsewhere, Kucinich whined about not being included in the New Hampshire debate and not being taken seriously.
It was painful to watch a dying political career, but I will never take Dennis Kucinich seriously again. Many of his former supporters won't either. Hang it up, Mr. Kucinich.
Of Money, Moxie, and Triangulation
Barack Obama's victory in Iowa was, in part, bought. The actual amounts of money spent by the Clinton and Obama campaigns are hard to discern, but I would hazard a guess of more than $20 million in both cases. Obama's campaign said as much. Edwards is getting ridiculed for claiming that his second place finish was a kind of victory since his campaign spent about 1/5th (1/6th depending on the source) of that amount. He has a point, however.
It is obvious that Obama has star quality, that he is a magnetic figure, some even say he is Kennedyesque (John not Teddy).
He certainly has a deep smoker's voice, and his post caucus speech was booming and full of gravitas. Obama's crass imitation of MLK's cadence at the beginning of the speech gives me pause, however, an example of overreaching that smacks of poor judgment. I fear that it will come back to haunt him if he becomes the Democratic nominee, when Republican attack ads repeat it over and over until it becomes irritating and seemingly insincere--especially when contrasted to footage of King himself.
What gives me bigger pause is that Obama now seems to be the most conservative of the Democratic front runners, triangulating in a manner worthy of the best of them all, Bill Clinton, while repeating the mantras of hope and change. I am not convinced that Obama is an agent of change anymore than Hillary Clinton. I know that his "change" will not alter the corporate domination of our government.
And don't write off Hil just yet. You know that the Clinton team was fully caffeinated Friday morning, brainstorming at a feverish pace, with Bill Clinton, one of the most successful and slickest politicians of my lifetime, engaged and holding forth.
Now, Obama is the one perfectly set up for a fall--I can picture Bill's little smile as he considers the possibilities.
President Huckabee?
The Democrats would do well to take the Mike Huckabee, a very apt pupil of former president Clinton, victory in Iowa seriously--it was big political story in its own right. Outspent by Mitt Romney approximately 20 to 1, the Baptist preacher, nonetheless, won easily.
While the Dems can take great comfort in the massive turnout that they generated in Iowa, the meaning of that turnout is not so straightforward as might be first suspected, and Huckabee is something that modern day Democrats have never faced, a genuine southern Republican populist.
Granted , Huckabee will lose in New Hampshire and will be unmercifully gutted by certain elements of the Republican establishment. The cannier Repugs might figure out, however, that Huckabee is their best chance of winning the general election, recognizing that George W. Bush was in fact stylistically a populist candidate, despite what the Democrats might think, and that Bill Clinton was too, while Al Gore, John Kerry, and Bush I were all dry-fuck patricians. Bob Dole was old and amusing, much like McCain will be if he gets the nomination--their moments both having passed them by.
Notwithstanding stolen elections, folksy has good winning percentage in presidential elections since Nixon/McGovern, and Huckabee is nothing if not folksy. He is smarter than he is given credit for, and that makes him especially dangerous. He plays guitar and returns compassion to the Christian lexicon in a way that W never really pulled off. He has a built in base all over the south. Plus, he can talk to southern blacks.
Can't you picture good ol' Mike pluggin' in his guitar and playing behind a rocking black choir somewhere in Alabama?
I'm just saying.
**************
I'll occasionally weigh in with more thoughts as the election season continues. For now, I am ponying up for John Edwards. Here's hoping that all the real issues aren't buried under a series of mud slides or obscured by vaporous clouds of change and hope.
--Loosestrife
