Daschle v. Thune

Argus

Somebody e-mailed asking why there was no reporting/critiquing of the Argus today. Well, there wasn't much in there besides stories like 'undecideds will now have to choose' and 'get-out-the-vote efforts under way.' Yeah, no kidding. Like I said, they didn't have much interesting to say.

UPDATE: Someone e-emailed in and noted a little box in a short profile of Daschle in the Argus Leader's "Voter Guide," an insert in the Sunday paper. Here's the last item:

AFTER POLITICS: He won't say whether this election is his last. As time allows, he wants to paint, play piano and learn Spanish. He studied Latin in high school, French in college.

Mansiongate

Some more rather humorous mansion photos etc over at SDP.

Push Polling

More reports are coming in about Daschle doing push-polls this weekend. One of them says something like 'if you knew John Thune advertised on pornographic websites would you still vote for him?'

Argus Leader

See this from an essay on Redstate about the Senate race:

Another factor in this race is that the state's biggest newspaper, the Gannett-owned Sioux Falls Argus Leader is practically the press office for the Daschle campaign. ... [W]hen you have a paper that has a virtual stranglehold on the press in the state it is a difficult task to break through the screen of persistant bias. 25% of South Dakota voters (mainly older voters) get their information on South Dakota politics from two sources - KELO-TV (the local CBS affliate) and the Argus Leader.

At the same time, Daschle has always counted on being able to separate his Washington self from his South Dakota self. He's always counted on being able to hug Bush in ads at home and slip knives into the President's back the second he gets back to the District. However, due to the Internet, talk radio, and the general way in which Daschle's cachet has risen in Washington, he's no longer able to maintain this political dichotomy.

"Daschle Dead Zone" in morning paper

Click on this to enlarge. I really like the ghosts of the the judicial nominees Daschle has killed with the filibuster--they're in the upper right.

Happy Halloween

A reader and a Thune fan sent this in:

From the mailbag

From a man in Vivian, South Dakota:

I find it interesting that Tom Daschle had only about 20 people show up for his bus trip rally in Mitchell while John Thune had about 500 people show up in Ft. Pierre Monday night for his bus trip rally. I was in Ft. Pierre and the line wrapped all the way around the inside of their community center building. This was not the usual political crowd you get in Pierre, it was genuine Stanley County ranchers and business people. I believe November 2nd will be Tom's retirement party.

Attys

Rapid City Journal: "Send in the lawyers: Tuesday might not bring election relief." Remember that the Democrats have already sought and received a court order excluding Republicans from Pine Ridge reservation.

Charlie Cook

Charlie Cook of the "Cook Political Report" was on "Meet the Press" earlier this morning and predicted Thune would win.

Vote Buying

Here's an Associated Press story about voting buying. More later.