Jan. 6th, 2007
Hasta be SunnySide Up...
Jan. 6th, 2007 11:43 pmBreakfast of Champions
By CHARLES BAXTER
Minneapolis
By CHARLES BAXTER
Minneapolis
THE Senate has been seated, and we have a new senator, Amy Klobuchar. But we’re still talking about the aftermath of the midterm elections.
Two friends from high school, guys I’ve known for 40 years, and I are at breakfast at a greasy spoon on Lyndale Avenue, watching the Minneapolis traffic. I ask for their analysis. My friend the estate planner speaks up first.
“I have it all figured out. Bill Clinton defeated Karl Rove,” he says. “The centrist Democrats, Bill Clinton types, beat out the Karl Rove types, the base voters. The base strategy isn’t going to work for a while. If it had worked, Mark Kennedy would have won the race for the Senate, and we’d have a scowling movement-conservative accountant as Minnesota’s senator. Instead, we have a brainy upbeat soccer-mom progressive. She won in a landslide. She was the antidote to despair. That’s what’s important.” More