A Topic Request: How do you think Bruce did?

His campaign was absolute buffoonery.

No reasonable person could conclude otherwise.

Bruce asked for this? Whaddaya thinkin?

Ok. Bruce has an important role in the GOP. Granted. But, that campaign was underfunded and overwhelmed from day one. Stephy could have stayed in Texas, not run a commercial, and gotten 70%.

“Players” with Thune, Rounds, Janklow & Rosenthal ties were constantly mentioned as potential candidates. None of those – more recognizable – names were willing to take that thumping. Should tell you something shouldn’t it?

Krebs, Johnson, Zabel, Seward, Dykstra, Skjonsberg, Costello, Russell —- line them all up and she would have knocked them all down. Difference is – they all knew it.

Bizarre pretty much describes it. The thing I remember most is how he seemingly based his campaign on the notion that she was somehow afraid to debate him. Then, when she did, he showed up totally unprepared and without a coherent thought. She mopped the floor with him. I remember the debate on Public TV as an example. I truly felt embarrassed for him and our party. As wishy washy and liberal as she is, you’d think it would occur to Bruce to call her on it. But apparently not.
Also the thing about her being pregnant by her campaign manager? Yep, bizarre.

Whalen was a waste — and those debates didn’t matter, the way I saw it, ole’Stephy laid the smackdown on him.

And let’s not forget the election night meltdown on the networks.

Thank God she didn’t show up for more debates. Who knows what would have come out of his mouth.

I met Bruce several times during the Thune/Daschle race. I walked with him in the parade for the Pine Ridge powow. He’s a great guy. From what I’ve heard he took supporters comments too much to heart. Someone would come up and politely say “oh, you’re doing a great job” and he would not realize that they were just being polite and that he completely needed to change his tactics. He obviously had a huge uphill battle, but I think he could have pulled it off in a perfect storm situation (which would have obviously include seasoned campaign management).

In PP’s posting, Bruce gets more support than he got from the entire party last year.

Here’s a hypothetical. If Bruce’s campaign manager writes a book about the campaign, do any of you think the Argus would review it?

I think it’s brave of Bruce to ask for this critique. Being a Dem and a supporter of his opponant, I’m tempted to say I think he did everything right. But I won’t.

Go get ‘em Bruce. Better luck (and staff) next time, huh?

Oh yeah, Bruce did a great job. He represented all the values that the Republican Party stands for.

What is the value of a post-mortem on the Whalen candidacy a full year after the election? Last year’s vote seemed to make clear everyone’s opinion of the Whalen campaign. It sounds like a weak attempt to drive some publicity for a candidate who couldn’t rouse any publicity of his own.

But I should note this line from Anon2:

“Krebs, Johnson, Zabel, Seward, Dykstra, Skjonsberg, Costello, Russell —- line them all up and she would have knocked them all down. Difference is – they all knew it.”

What?! Defeatism from the best Republicans? As a Dem, I’m happy to hew to the line that you will not beat Herseth-Sandlin (just try it in 2008: you will lose again). But as a campaigner (well, at least as someone who’d like to tell campaigners a thing or two), I say nobody’s unbeatable, no matter how much out-of-state money or good looks or reputation or “Grandpa says I’m sweet” factor they have. If you want to win, and you’ve got the goods, you can win.

Hiding behind inevitability is an excuse, a dodge of personal responsibility. Hillary is trying it with health care (it wasn’t my fault my health care reform didn’t pass in 1994; the special interests were too big, the political climate wasn’t right). The GOP may take comfort in it. But in big red South Dakota, contending you can’t beat a Democrat with connections to Washington liberals is not just a dodge; it verges on Unruhesque detachment from reality.

11) coralhei
as a fellow democrat living in a rather “red town” (maybe the reddest) I’ve taken part in many of the discussions regarding these “best Republicans.”

The republicans continually talked about these supposed “stars”, but in the end, they couldn’t muster the courage to take on our congresswoman. Nor were the republicans truly interested in letting one of their annointed by slaughtered. Ain’t that funny? That’s my take-away from all this. Face it Repubs…you don’t have any young John Thune’s out there.

a couple of them may have mounted a nice campaign, but none of them would have beaten her. period.

Bruce’s Whalen’s campaign? One word: “ouch”

Bruce’s campaign was so bad and offensive (pregnancy issue) that he shouldn’t even be allowed to post here. IT WAS THAT TERRIBLE.

Let me make sure I’ve got this straight-
Are we supposed to compare how Bruce did compared to Volk in ‘88 or Frankenfeld in ‘90 or John Timmer in ‘92 or Jan Berkout in 94? All told they got an average of 30.5% of the vote. Bruce got 29.34% He didn’t even meet the threshold of those Republican also rans.

Aren’t some things better left forgotten, like the Whalen for Congress campaign? As Billion, Whalen, and Volesky demonstrated in 2006, about 30-35% of the Republicans or Democrats will vote for a tomato can if they have a certain letter after their name.

I don’t think Herseth-Sandlin is/was completely unbeatable. I think she was just unbeatable for Bruce Whalen in 2006.

GOP Lessons Learned from that campaign:
1. Don’t run someone against Herseth-Sandlin who is not a coherent public speaker.
2. Don’t run someone against Herseth-Sandlin who has never run for statewide office.
3. Don’t run someone against Herseth-Sandlin who doesn’t have anything more to say beyond “Abortion is bad!” for six months.

Bruce lost because most people didn’t know him, and he was a one-dimensional candidate who couldn’t debate his way out of a paper bag.

While working for Jim Abdnor in D.C., he and I had a lot of time to talk about his race against Geo. McGovern. In these discussions, he said that his first hurdle was getting people to believe he had a chance against a three term Senator and former Presidential nominee. Until they thought that, nobody would pay attention to his views or vision. And for him, to address that, he had to convince people that his speech impediment wouldn’t cause people to think that he was intelligent enough to be a US Senator.

So against the advice of everyone around him, Jim came back to the state and talked not about what everyone was talking about but about issues people had never really thought about (I wish I remembered what they were). Once people realized that Jim was as intelligent as McGovern, they looked at him as someone who could win. From that he built his momentum and ultimately won by a landslide.

What I am about to say is not related to race but is cultural. I grew up on the River and next to Indian Country and know many Native Americans as friends. Culturally, they generally do not utilize aggressive language to pursuade but convince using a softer tone that stimulates others to think internally and reach the conclusion themself. In many ways it is almost pastoral in approach.

Unfortunately, most think that aggressiveness is necessary to be effective in Congress so this became an impediment to people believing Bruce could win. I don’t think his only problem was the idea people believed Herseth was invincible. It is not like Herseth’s hadn’t been beaten.

In retrospect, Jim had an advantage that Bruce didn’t. Jim was a Congressman which gave him a forum to address his percieved weakness. If Bruce would have had a forum from which to speak and show himself before becoming a candidate, he would have been able to eliminate is first challenge (does he have a chance) and gotten a more fair look.

Todd, I don’t think we should forget about this campaign. There were issues raised from a perspective we as a state need to understand. I had the opportunity to have an hour plus private conversation with Bruce. I found him personable, intelligent, informed, and thoughtful about the issues. I learned a lot in that conversation for which I’m richer and wiser. Win or lose, our state would have been better off if the body politic had listened more about what he had to say.

All this being said, I don’t know if Bruce would have been electable. Successful campaigners have certain common traits. Bruce may or not have them (we really never got a chance to see). But lacking this particular skill (if he really lacks it) doesn’t negate the importance of what Bruce talked about nor his ideas. I personally hope he continues to raise these ideas. Success isn’t just about what happens in the ballot box on a single day in history. Success also includes the long-term changing of people’s hearts and minds.

17. Short version. Bruce should have been good. And yet he sucked. Why?

Pray tell Troy, enlighten us as to what important issues we missed out on.

Anon12 mentions courage. I’ll grant Whalen that: he had the courage to wage war for a GOP that otherwise lacked the guts to take on a one-term incumbent. Hmm… didn’t PP talk about the need for visionary candidates? If you can’t combine vision and courage, what are you doing in politics in the first place? Maybe Whalen was the best man for the job, since everyone else in the party seems to want to wait for an easy pass into office. Compare that to Herseth: she took her first plunge against Bill Janklow. Holy cow! That’s courage. (And it set her up to win next time — think about that, oh cowardly lions of the GOP.)

When Herseth entered the 2002 race, the expected GOP primary field was to be Roger Hunt, Tim Amdahl, and Bert Tollefson. Pressler and Janklow entered after Herseth. I’m sorry to say but there is no courage in taking on those original three stooges. She only deserves credit for staying in that race but remember it was the first time you starting hearing she wanted to be Governor. She was thinking about changing races.

Thanks for the input. I hope everyone doesn’t turn down an opportunity to run for statewide office when faced with the option.

I had worse comments hurled at me for being American Indian. Having them hurled at me for being Republican or not being cut from a preferred portion of the “Big Tent” is nothing. I will sift those “worse” comments out and take into consideration the rest.

Thanks to those of you that supported and continue to support me even with my faults.

I listened to a fellow that spitted and hollered though out his entire speech and got a standing ovation for saying little more that what Hannity said.

I got a golf applause for saying Indian Country could do better with big government off its back. I wondered where the Republicans were at afterward. One fellow said, “They (”Indians”) don’t know anything about money or keeping things nice.” I heard this kind of comment from all parties. The road became steep that night.

The best comment I heard was from a Democratic Party member after a dinner meeting with about 30 people. I spoke about the Two South Dakotas and how big government made it that way. He said, “I had no idea, why isn’t this getting into the media.” He wrote a $200.00 check. My sail filled.

I suppose I could have gotten into the press more by spray painting broken images of South Dakota on yard signs or the walls of the Capital Building.

I am not afraid to be taken to task for trying to jump start peace in this state.

As far as debates. I was a reflection of the average understanding of most South Dakotans. I am glad that I didn’t get an A+ for all of the questions. Answering questions only to beat the test shows manufacturing of consent. The media and partisanship has a lot to do with writing exams. As for the AARP forum; I was sick from being in the cold knocking on doors all day long, under prepared and wanted to leave but didn’t against my intuition. DL laid out a strong case showing the AARP forum was structured to favor Herseth. I will take the blame for not being better prepared.

However, It would have been great to have a conversation with Herseth in front of a live audience. There is the best unfiltered test!

Bruce:

Thank your lucky stars that you didn’t face Stephanie before a live audience. She would have mopped the floor with you. She has tons of charisma and it is even more apparent in person than on TV. She would have been nice, and positive and articulate–and at the end of the event, you would have felt like you were belted by Mike Tyson and Mohammad Ali in succession.

I’m just saying.

But thanks for playing!

Bruce. We all start out stupid. The point is, we don’t have to stay that way if we resolve to relax and pay attention. If we tighten up, get defensive, and defend our ignorance, we end up like our current President. Coulda, shoulda, woulda been a hero, but he couldn’t see past his own ego. He had the world in the palm of his hand and pissed it all away. Learn that and you’ll do just fine.

Bruce, one nagging question has bothered me for a long time… What about the Stephy is pregnant thing. What was the deal with that? It was the single most bizarre thing in the whole election. Did you really believe it? Did someone you trusted give you bad information? Were you misquoted? Summon up some of your courage and character and tell us where that came from. Do tell.

23. Yeah I saw all that charisma you speak of literally stirring up a dust storm trying to escape a microphone with 300 people on the other side waiting to hear from US Candidates. She denied HER constituents a place in campaign history. She ran scared and can’t deny it no matter how hard you try for her. She dodged ALL opportunites for public participation. Tyson is associated with ear biting.

25. I don’t mind talking about that incident and never dodge the question. During that time I wasn’t going to allow the media to make decisions for me and was overly defensive about what I said.

Lee said he was doing opposition research using the Internet and thought he found some extraordinary opposition. He first spoke with my political advisor and both deemed it necessary to verify several Wikipedia edits about Herseth. Their decision seemed reasonable to me.

The Wikipedia edits seemed too incredibly stupid to be true. It didn’t seem unreasonable to confirm whether or not she might be pregnant. One edit struck me as sheer fallacy. I told Lee to treat the information as false and to refrain from making any accusations.

I understood that Lee was going to contact only Pat P. or Sibby to see if they were willing to strike down the Wikipedia edits. It seemed like a good idea to ask Herseth directly about being pregnant but I wasn’t sure how to approach her without turning it sour. I didn’t get the chance to speak with Herseth before Lee made accusations about her to the media and bloggers. Things took off from there.

I was pretty upset and moved to fire Lee. My political advisor said he would keep tabs on Lee and suggested not to fire him. I told Lee to apologize to Herseth for his methods. He attempted to contact Herseth to personally apologize but was blocked by her staff.

Had Herseth been pregnant I would not allow it to be used as a negative against her. She can defend herself but I found myself preparing to swat down any critics.

There is more to the story but I think pertinent details were covered.

Thanks Bruce. I’d say the bottom line that you were pretty much abandoned by the party. They decided that Stephy was “unbeatable”. That was a ridiculous notion. Anybody can be beat. Especially someone who seems to have no conservative values at all in the reddest of red states. None of the stars of the Republican party had the balls to take her on. When you showed that you did, nobody was willing to step in and help. You had well meaning but inexperienced and naive staff, no money, and virtually no support from those you were fighting for. The fact that you haven’t completely cut ties with the party shows that you’re an honorable person with a true belief in conservative principals. Too bad so many others only pay lip service. The party seems to be doing itself some serious damage on both the local and national levels. This is but one example, the do not help list was another. Splintering into different coalitions and fighting amongst ourselves is paving the way for democrats to take over this state. We’re doing it to ourselves. We need leadership very badly if we want next year to be anything but a total disaster for the GOP.

Bruce – many factors contributed, just a few of which I’ll gloss over. First of all, the GOP machine floated you out there and then cut the tether. What do those say who urged you to run? What promises were not kept? It seems “self-funded” candidates are now preferred by the GOP. I did happen to self fund my dinner last night, but perhaps not in the manner of say Kirby or Costello.

You asked for it so here goes: Stephanie is liked by most and palatable to others: Funded, organized and the pedigree, not to mention sassy and articulate. She’s popular with both cosmos and clodhoppers. The Coot himself has probably taken a shine to her.

You came off as largely one-dimensional (did you mention you were for family values?) and otherwise uninformed. I don’t doubt that you are a bright guy, but no vision was put forth that could get people excited. To have a chance in this context, you needed momemtum, and to have people energized in April, not August.

You came off (to me) as angry on the “she won’t debate me” line, then when she did, you couldn’t deliver. Anger and indignity can be usefull but it is better played as the victim and not the bully. You could have taken a page from Janklow here. Not that he displayed anger toward her. No doubt he cursed her in closed session, but through experience, knew enough to coddle her a bit publicly. She needed a firm, yet soft touch.

Take some consolation in this: In 02 with his legacy intact (sans dead biker), he barely got past a Georgetown lawyer who came home, put on some jeans and a flannel, and said anoint me. If the greatest of political thugs in SD history barely nipped her, how could you be expected to pull this off, after incumbency?

The pregnacy thing was a disaster. Had it been true, you needed to be sensitive yet imply she was distracted, and needed to focus on her physical (and emotional) condition (watch for a similar angle in the Tim Johnson opponent). Instead your campaign stopped just short of calling for a good old-fashioned stoning.

I think also in play was that after ousting the most powerful dem in the country in 2004, alot of the GOP again remembered they didn’t want to lose sight of the Federal teat. Thune hadn’t exactly delivered on that direct line to white house. GW just wanted Tom Das… whoops.

Don’t agonize over the loss. I say all this from the bleachers and with hindsight. You stuck your chin out there and that alone deserves a measure of respect.

Bruce, you’ve got the guts to run (and to take your lumps). I respect you for that.

Bruce, I do not know if you are still reading these, but here is my two cents worth. First, I did not believe you stood a snowball’s chance. I admired the fact that you would run in what was probably a no-win situation. At least the GOP was able to field a candidate, and a minority one to boot. This is about all you were going to get from the GOP unless you showed something in some polls.
Now, about those polls. Rush Limbaugh has it right when he says you have to give people a reason to pull the lever for you. Saying you are not Stephanie Herseth will not do it. You came out pro-life. I am not sure you articulated what you would do in support of that position. What legislation would you introduce if you won? What legislation would you have voted differently than Stephanie had you been the Congressman in that regard? I never heard where you stood on Bush’s tax cuts. Would you have voted to make them permanent? I doubt Stephanie will. I asked your campaign about the Fair Tax. All I got was a response from your campaign guy saying you did not know enough, but would study it and get back to me. I never heard. What would you do about illegal immigration? Is there some legislation you would have proposed or supported? How would that have differed from Stephanie? I do not believe Stephanie Herseth Sandlin is unbeatable. However, she supports all of the right farm programs and is cute to boot. If you cannot show enough of a difference between you and her, there is no reason to vote for you. When Ronald Reagan ran, people could hardly wait to pull the lever for him. When Bill Clinton ran the second time, people could hardly wait to pull the lever for him. Even the supporters of Bush and Gore could hardly wait to pull the levers for their guy. People did not care about Kerry and really did not care whether they pulled the lever for Bush or Kerry. Tom Daschle was so popular for so long people could hardly wait to pull the lever for him, too. The same with John Thune. For me, the bottom line was just I did not really care whether you won or she did and I did not vote for either of you.

31. I did answer those question but the media prints what it wants.

Bush tax cuts – permanent, adjust ATM and end capital gains tax (reporters ignored this)

FAIR, submit tax info on a post card (reporters ignored this) My laptop is filled with FAIR tax information and I was given a book and was drilled about it. Think about what my staff said, wow.

Criminal migrants – just that, they broke our laws, amend the constitution, no anchor babies (reporters ignored this)

Sibby said I was too conservative for the GOP (he didn’t say this as an attack on me, merely the state party forgot its platform)

Abortion – YES ON SIX, defund Plan Parenthood and types, vote for constructionist judge (reporters report this)

Indian Country – Accountability, shrink government influence and increase business (Indian Reorganization Act government are not sovereign) I don’t see how you could not hear about this

Google Randy Fredricks to see how many times he spoke about the US House race.

We did great and could have done better had my campaign plan been followed.

I live in the very experiment the Democrats want for the rest of the US. Trust me you don’t want it.

Thanks for the observations. I hope my answers cleared some things for you.