Who to choose: Coleman, Franken or Barkley

I've voted for the centrist since 1980. In Minnesota, that means either the old fashioned "Republican in name only" like Dave Durenberger, and Rudy Boshwitz, or the new styled moderate Democrat like Amy Klobuchar. In most cases, they were centrists only in comparison to the partisan rhetoric of their opponents.

I would like to say that Jack Uldrich won the IP party endorsement. If he had, I would be all over Gather with excessive hype and enthusiasm. Barkleys main issue is the debt, and that is high on my list.

1) reduce partisanship.
2) reduce debt or excessive tribute exacted from other nations
3) install new technology to streamline the public sector
4) pass wage and price controls in health care
5) cut back on military overreach
6) promote capitalism and the government regulation of capitalism
7) bury the bad rap on the progressive income tax
8) promote free trade

Barkley has a bit of libertarianism in him, which I don't care for, but you may.

If Barkley were not running, I would have voted for Coleman. It's the same old fashioned "Republican in name only" thing again.

Thanks for the food for thought Tim. I really don't lean towards libertarianism. I appreciate your comments!

Barkley is an interesting choice. He was Jesse Ventura's political handler and in that role he picked a line up of the best commissioners and department heads this state has ever seen.

I would vote for him in an instant, but I place the emphasis on the word "would" because I fear a vote for Barkley simply tips the election toward either Coleman or Franken, so it is a wasted vote. I would rather target my vote.

I guess I will vote for Coleman because Franken is simply to much of an ideologue. We need people who can work with others, not shout at them.

Thanks Greg. You really hit the nail on the head when you describe Franken as an idealogue. That's really where I'm unsure. On one hand if I compare the views & positions of Franken and Coleman I certainly fall more on the Franken's side. But on the other hand I do feel that Coleman can get things done.

So I'm trying to decide to I vote based on who matches my view points or do I vote based on who has a record of getting things done. It's not an easy choice.

M.K.

Though I did not enjoy my experience with Franken, as a delegate to the DFLstate convention I was for endorsing his main opponent, three weeks ago I had a Franken sign in my lawn. Then, I listened to the debates and it was the same old back and forth with Barkley as the voice of reason. After this last debate, my husband and I pulled the Franken sign out of the lawn. However, I'm not really sure that I like Barkley's fiscal policy. I feel that corperate wellfare is crushing our economy and destroying good jobs and the middle class. I like the idea of regulating Wall Street, at the very least. You are not alone in being undecided, though I feel that I'm leaning Barkley, the decision will not be made until I'm behind the curtain. Will he be the deciding vote in the Senate that kills a bill to regulate Wall St? Will he be agressive enough for the enviornment? This is my conundrum. Jesse didn't solve the problem of partisan politics, instead he made the state a laughing stock. I feel that Franken could do the same. However, as a former chairperson for the Big Stone County Republican Party, I don't want the Republicans to win a single race. Not after what they've done to Iraq, what they haven't done for Afghanistan or the working poor.

I'll be listening to the debate tonight. On Wednesday, I'd love to know the conclusion to your conundrum. Thanks ~Jess

Thanks for your thoughts Jess. I really liked a couple of Franken's opponents better, I felt most strongly about Jack Nelson Paul-Meyer after hearing several of the candidates on MPR about a year ago. Sadly he didn't get very far.

I'll be listening to the debate as well to see if that helps at all.

I am not in MN, but I am keeping my fingers crossed for Franken.

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer was an amazing chance not for the state, but for the country. He got very far for what he was up against. Many, many, many of my fellow delegates (almost every single one that I spoke with) wanted to vote for Jack on the first ballot. Many were not doing so because they had been elected delegates out of a Franken caucus. Why had they caucused for Al? "Because I hadn't heard of Jack early on." I was told over and over.

I have four kids, two jobs and my husband works 15 hours a day. Yet, when I was elected as a delegate to my county's convention, I went in having listened to the debates. I was informed, as well, thanks to MPR. Many of the people that I met at the convention, even Jack backers, had not listened to the debates. As a democrat I was stunned. In the end I am reminded of one of my favorite sayings, "Get Involved: the world is run by those who show up." No matter how uninformed they are. I hope that more informed people like you would get involved.

Jess, it's sad that more people hadn't heard of Jack. I was truly impressed when I first heard him on MPR.

I listened to the debate tonight and I have to admit I really was not impressed by Al Franken.

My dilemma remains that I likely agree more with his policies but I am increasingly doubtful that he would be an effective law maker

I disagree with Norm Coleman on a few important issues (Iraq & drilling for oil) but I feel that he truly will fight for what is best for Minnesota. I also feel that he has a greater ability to work across the aisle, despite his historical strong support for Bush.

I don't know as much about Dean Berkley but there were few things he said tonight that I agree with.

If I were still living in Minnesota, I'd vote for Franken. No matter who gets elected president, I think we're moving into a full-blown depression, and a more liberal Senate could make the coming years more bearable for ordinary people. Franken has a history of telling the truth, which I really don't see with Coleman. Coleman may get things done, but they'll be the wrong things.

Thanks Steve. That's what I'm afraid of with Coleman. He'll work hard but I don't agree with some of his key views. I may just need to go look into Barkley some more.

I am voting for Barkley. Forget about the idea of throwing your vote away. If enough of us are willing to vote with our conscience rather then the way the campaigns want us to, we can send a real message to them that we are tired of all the bickering between the two parties and want them to actually do something.

Thanks Ben. I heard Barkley's interview with Gary Eichten this morning and I really do like his message of voting your conscience.

My conscience may just lead me to vote for him after all.

I attended the final US Senate debate yesterday and came to the conclusion that Franken is not prepared to represent Minnesota as US senator. His goals are lofty and he does not have any sense of what is reasonable and what proposals of his must be cut in order to be productive as a US senator. He is running on the coat tails of Barack Obama and fails to convey a voice of his own. He made many jokes last night at times when he seemed to be uncomfortable or unable to provide a sufficient answer. Dean Barkley ran the best campaign and has the concerns of Minnesotans in mind. He knows what must be done and knows what restrictions face him. He is a voice all his own - free from public and/or media scrutiny - and will represent us in the US senate.

With all this said, Coleman's time is up and he needs to be ousted. Please support Dean Barkley.

Thanks Tyler. I'm coming away with similar conclusions after listening to the debate last night and hearing Coleman's and Barkley's interviews with Gary Eichten this morning. I'm listening to the re-broadcast of the debate right now and my dislike of Franken hasn't changed.

You are welcome M.K., and thank you for taking the time to listen. Nice to see people listening to the views of peers and even strangers on such an important issue. I hope you come to a conclusion that you are content with.

I too felt the same way M.K. I have a similar background, and am not affiliated with a certian party. I admit I have crossed party lines when voting in the past because I tend to vote for the person and issues, not the party. This year I was very undecided as I did not want Coleman, but was unhappy with the Franken choice. I just took the MN Public Radio choose a candidate poll and surprisingly alined up strongly with Barkley.
This doesn't surprise me I guess, as I also voted for Jessie V a few elections back. So this year I guess I will be again not doing the party line vote.

Wendi, thanks for the reminder about the MPR tool. I used it once a long time ago to help choose the DFL nominee (I think it suggested Biden but I don't remember for sure).

I think I'll do that now.

I just took the survey. It matched me first with Franken but it showed I had only 9 out of 11 matching views whereas for Barkley I had 10 out of 11 matching views.

Hope you are able to be certain on your choice by tomorrow!

The Starbucks I got in an e-mail from them, and if you do a search you'll pull up a lot of articles about it. They had to change it to giving a free coffee to anyone since otherwise they'd be breaking an election law!

Thanks April!!

M.K. when I took the primary MPR poll I matched up with Biden higher than I did with Obama. What is this about Starbucks, we don't have one up here in Central MN but I'm curious about what they were offering.

Wendi, the Starbucks thing is a post from April H saying that Starbucks is giving away a free small coffee tomorrow to everyone that votes.

Here's the link to her article:

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977496767

Well everyone, when it was all said and done I decided to vote Barkley. The line at the poll wasn't too terrible and it only took about 1/2 hour.

Now I'm at my local independent coffee shop excited to hear the results at the end of the day.

Happy voting everyone!

M.K. Thank you for this conversation, it truly helped me make my decision. I ended up going to Barkley's myspace page to try to find more details. It was tough because nothing came up for me when I clicked on Read More buttons. However, there was enough info to help me decide. I never can like everything (18 year olds drinking rights & legal weed????), but that's life.

We loaded our four daughters into the car this morning and drove to our fire station to vote. It felt so good to vote this year!!! I voted my conscience and did not feel that I was voting for the lesser of two evils for the first time in some time. I, too, voted for Barkley, and now I'm anxious to find out the results.

Thankfully the election is over.