I'm sitting here watching the re-run of the KSTP DFL Gubernatorial Debate...(this is what nerds like me do on a Saturday night.)  I'm under the weather and there is nothing better than chicken-noodle-soup, a warm blanket, and the droning of Margaret Anderson Kelliher to put you to sleep.  She is SO the trumpet/Charlie-Brown teacher....wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, waaahhh....

On style:

Mark Dayton is just weird.  He has the strangest speaking style.  If you desperately needed directions and he was the only guy at a back roads gas station....you'd keep driving.

Matt Entenza:  "I was a poor boy from Worthington, I'm from a poor family in Worthington, did I mention I was poor and I'm from Worthington?"  (My media consultants told me to look exactly like this and talk exactly like this.)  I didn't know you could train weasels.

Margaret Anderson Kelliher:  "I'm a mom from a farm, I'm a mom who does bake sales, I'm from a farm and people like me, they really, really like me."  She has a Hillary quality about her...trying so hard to be affable.  She's probably a funny person, but she forces it and comes off as bitter. 

On the issues:

Windmills, green jobs, spending more on education, universal health care, raising taxes to make things fair...Hey DFL- Barack Obama called, he wants his '08 platform back.  (Do you think any of them know the President's approval rating is 44% in Minnesota?)

Some Republicans may be wringing their hands, I'm rubbing mine together.

We've been outspent 16-1 (I can't prove it, but I'll bet that the Entenza campaign is even paying commenters on the Strib site as I've noticed a major shift in the content of comments over the last couple of weeks...)  All of this and we're only down 5 or 6  points in a recent poll should we face Entenza or Kelliher...14 points against Dayton...and that's just because he has the most statewide name recognition.  We should be down by 20.

While I still believe we have a major uphill climb, bring on any one of these liberals. (Although I think Dayton will provide our starkest contrast and best opportunity to win.)

P.S.  Don't miss Katherine Kersten's piece on the spending thus far in the Guv's race...The party of "the rich" is the DFL.