David, I see you are from Minnesota yourself. Not from Lake Woebegone, perchance? <<bad joke>>
(I mentioned the book only because, as a Minnesotan, you might be interested...)
The Outlook section of Sunday's Washington Post ran what I found to be quite a funny piece on your gubernatorial election. Do you think it fairly characterizes the candidates?
Political Muscle
Why The Bod's My Man
By James Lileks
Sunday, November 8, 1998; Page C02
MINNEAPOLIS—He's an ex-wrestler, for heaven's sake. There is no
intercessory device between his mind and his mouth. He has no practical
political experience. His supporters can be a rather frightening crowd.
That's what some were saying.
But Minnesota elected Paul Wellstone to the Senate in 1990, anyway.
(Yes, Wellstone was a wrestler, but the image of the man in sweaty
tights is something Minnesotans try hard to repress.)
Now, the state populated by die-hard Dems--the faithful serfs of Hubert
Humphrey and Walter Mondale and the state where half the electorate
is still angry that Mikhail Gorbachev was never on the ballot--has
elected the Reform Party's Jesse "The Body" Ventura as its governor.
He's a former Navy SEAL, former biker-gang member, theatrical
grappler, actor and talk-show host. His resume is fit for a Fox sitcom.
The national media are duly amused. Implicit in their coverage is a
horrified thought: If Minnesota can be this daft, can America be far
behind?
Relax.
I have crossed paths with Ventura a few times. During the election, I had
him on my radio show, where he discoursed on the need for light rail,
educational reform and industrial hemp. He was articulate, calm,
reasoned, bald and capable of killing everyone in the booth. (Not that it
seemed likely. I did not worry for a minute that if I challenged his position
on vouchers, he would produce a thuggee-string from a hollow molar and
strangle me before I could finish my sentence.)
Jesse is a big fellow, and he radiated an intimate, charismatic
association with havoc. Hubert-worship is genetically encoded in
Minnesotans, but with Hubert ("Skip") Humphrey III, Ventura's Democratic
challenger, there was always the threat of unexpected
unconsciousness--from boredom. Skip bobs and chatters and fists the
air like he's goosing Zeus, but it all falls flat. It's like watching someone
blow confetti out of his nose for 30 minutes: The act quickly wears thin.
Skip screeched about the parlous state of Minnesota children, as though
the streets were thick with grimy-mawed Dickensian urchins; he insisted
the state must intercede early to ensure the proper formation of infant
conscience. People thought: This is a far cry from his dad's insistence
that blacks should be able to vote; this sounds like the state wants to be
present in the delivery room, ready to slap a bar code on the forehead
of a newborn before it's toweled off and weighed.
Humphrey came in third.
Norm Coleman, mayor of St. Paul, was Ventura's Republican opponent.
He switched parties a few years ago, saying that the DFL--that's
Democratic Farmer Labor, the party of the uber-Hubert--had moved too
far left. Many suspected Norm was simply a clever mixture of ambition
and Velveeta packed in the shape of a nice suit. He had some stern
stances--he was against abortion, and favored a law to permit people to
carry concealed weapons.
But Jesse favored concealed weapons, too. Hell, when Jesse puts on
clothes, he is a concealed weapon.
Those were the choices: the merry gibbering scion, the cool bland fellow
with his dishwater conservatism, and this big, blustering bulldog in
snakeskin boots who looked like Mr. Clean's cellmate.
But Jesse's watery opposition doesn't explain his win. There's more:
* Commercials. When Jesse finally got enough cash to put out spots,
they were brilliant. (He used Wellstone's old ad maker.) Jesse's finest
TV ad had "The Bod" in the posture of Rodin's "The Thinker"; the
camera traveled around his now-familiar (and apparently naked) bulk
while the announcer described the positions of Jesse "The Mind." At the
end of the spot, he winked. No candidate ever winks. That was 50,000
votes right there.
* Motivated Yahoos. When the local TV stations cut to the victory party,
it was the cultural elites' worst nightmare: The room was full of the kind
of guys who put bandannas around their dogs' necks, who regard
"Stairway to Heaven" as liturgical music. The sort of men who put up
Sheetrock for a living and eat powdered doughnuts for breakfast. You
could see cups of beer--beer!--being waved around.
Which leads us to the next point:
* Sincerity. This above all. Not even Ventura's detractors suggest he's
just blowing smoke. He believes what he believes, and if you don't like it,
fine, okay, you're wrong, but lemme tell you this: Ventura had a rally at
the University of Minnesota, where he told the students they shouldn't
get loans for the first two years because all they'll do is drink beer and
party. The standard political stance would be, of course, loans, loans and
more loans. Get a job! barked Jesse--and no one doubted he meant it.
He scored high with students. And parents who have kids in college.
It's not that Ventura has thought through every issue to the last detail.
He hasn't. But don't underestimate Ventura. He's no book-learning
egghead, but he's no dummy. Besides, Minnesota voters asked, what has
the rule of the technocrats with their reams of sheepskins gotten us?
Fireworks bans! Commuter lanes reserved for
hippy-Al-Gore-carbon-taxing worrywarts! Rules, regulations, rules on
how to regulate the regulation of rules. Enough!
Bottom line: Voting for Jesse felt good. People had the chest-heaving,
ground-pawing, nostril-snorting vigor of someone who has pummeled the
opponent, headed back to the corner and slapped The Body's palm: Your
turn, partner.
James Lileks is a columnist for Newhouse News Service.
search.washingtonpost.com
Another columnist was much more dour about the situation:
What prayer did Humphrey and his Republican counterpart in Minnesota,
Norm Coleman, have? They were just a couple of guys who knew all the issues...
He was especially dour about what he evidently saw as rank voter ingratitude, where Humphrey is concerned: the voters rejected Humphrey, after all he had reportedly done for Minnesota:
For 16 years Skip Humphrey, the son of Hubert H. Humphrey, worked as
attorney general of Minnesota. Six months ago, after battling big
tobacco in court for four years, Humphrey won a $6.1 billion settlement
for Minnesotans. That's $6.1 billion. Not $6.1 million. For a state of just
4.5 million people......
search.washingtonpost.com
Your thoughts?
jbe
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