Disastrous Wellstone Service Analyzed

Yahoo News - AP ^ | 11/26/02 | Patrick Howe

[afraidfortherepublic]

Has it ever been revealed who paid for this excess? Surely you local funeral co-ordinator doesn't usually offer an arena at the University of Minnesota as a funeral venue. And the loudspeakers, bands, TV screens, etc., couln't have come cheap.

And then:
1) The tawdry message conveyed by disinviting the Vice President.
2) The booing of anyone present who was not a Democrat.
3) The total absence of any sign of respect for the loss of the wife, daughter, campaign staff, or crew.

A funeral is a solemn time when all who knew the deceased are welcome to pay their respects to the man. There was no respect shown at all in this carnival atmosphere.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Maybe they couldn't decide which Christian denomination to select in order to get the most votes.

More likely was the incovenient fact that the Crystal Cathedral isn't located in Minnesota! < /sarcasm >

[Republican Landslide]

Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, a political independent, said the very next morning that he was so disgusted he walked out.

Say what you will about Gov. Jesse (The Body) Ventura, the Republican Party owes this man a debt of gratitude. The fact that a political independent was the first to express shock and indignation removed any shred of cover for the Democrats.

It is refreshing to see miscalculations made on such a grand scale in politics. It confirms that the entire process has not yet been completely taken over by machines.

[Joe Bonforte]

In hindsight, their first mistake may have been holding a memorial service in a big basketball arena.

Under a bank of Jumbotron screens.

Live on C-Span.

I'm not sure you can categorize this as a "mistake". The real mistake is to believe that their crass attitude towards politics is supported by the mainstream voter. They honestly believe that anyone who's not a liberal is a depraved fool, and that the majority of voters agree with that once it's pointed out to them. So, operating on that assumption, the "memorial" service was entirely apropos.

If they continue to think that they just fumbled the logistics on this event, and fail to re-examine their core assumptions that are faulty, they are doomed to continually make these kinds of mistakes. Good.

[SerpentDove]

>>"To expect that 15- or 20,000 Wellstone supporters would be quiet as pictures of Trent Lott and others flashed on the screen was too much to expect," said Steve Smith, director of the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government and Public Policy at Washington University in St. Louis.<<

True. If we have learned ANYTHING, it is not to expect human decency from Democraps.

[Utah Girl]

And the spin continues...I must have missed the jumbotrons and the flashing of the biggies on the big screen during the service. Oh my, how respectful.

[aristeides]

"The problem here was that this was an event controlled by a family that was grieving and a campaign staff that was no longer in the campaign," Smith said. "So, there were errors in judgment."

AP keeps up the DNC's lame cover story that the Wellstone family was responsible for the tone of the rally.

[SerpentDove]

Another Clinton-orchestrated disaster.

Better put some ice on that.

[zarf]

The simple fact that the service was simply in bad taste is beyond the DumboCrap analysts.

[Blue Screen of Death]

This followed that completely self serving speech that Bob "when did we become such an unforgiving country" Torricelli gave. I think this gave the nation real insight into the Democratic party.

[KarlInOhio]

it was a freakin' campaign rally.

The only thing they were missing was a balloon drop and having the band play "Happy Days Are Here Again".

The scary thing is that they could have done it correctly and Mondale would be a senator again. With some tears in the speeches instead of a fiery demand for victory, with scenes from Wellstones life on the jumbotron (or turn off the jumbotron completely) instead of zoom shots of the speakers and audience they would have been able to ride Wellstone's death to victory like they did with the Widow Carnahan.

If they did the memorial service solemnly, they could have pressured Coleman into not campaigning and allowed Mondale to funeral march his way into the Senate.

[Billthedrill]

How very odd, given that they excluded Cheney a couple of days before the rally - er, "memorial" - I mean, "celebration." It might make the cynical believe that they planned this from the beginning...oh, but that would be silly...

[cake_crumb]

The real spin begins....

[Revolting cat!]

Disastrous? I don't get it. Says who? When the unexpected and tragic happens, that's a disaster. Here, on the other hand, everything went according to the plan!

[dirtboy]

The only thing they were missing was a balloon drop and having the band play "Happy Days Are Here Again".

Yeah, playing "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow" at a memorial service probably would have been too crass, even for that bunch.

[KarlInOhio]

I think they figured they could get away with booing Lott, but booing the Vice President would be unacceptable and would be a drain on Mondale's polling numbers. Oops, miscalculated what they could get away with.

[Alberta's Child]

That's a good point about Ventura.

I would add that the Democrats knew immediately that something had gone terribly wrong -- probably from internal polling they did afterward. They began backpedaling on that rally very quickly -- remember how nobody wanted to take responsibility for organizing it?

Of course, the natural DNC response was to have Terry McAuliffe blame the family for setting it up that way.

The Democratic Party has become nothing more than a series of industrial accidents just waiting to happen.

[cake_crumb]

The problem was the labeling," said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. "The mistake was in labeling this as a memorial instead of a celebration of the lives of these individuals, which is what it was."

Yeah, the LIVE(er) ones who were at the rally.

[Mannaggia l'America]

Mark Penn, who conducts polls for former President Clinton

Why is Bill Clinton still conducting polls.....

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

I do not believe this service changed many votes. I do however believe it was the deciding factor for many of the undecided and increased the Republican turnout across the nation.