With Clint Eastwood finally off-stage, it’s a wrap in Tampa. Bill Salisbury of the PiPress writes: “After every Republican National Convention, state GOP leaders predict their ticket could carry Minnesota. It hasn't happened in 40 years. ‘Unfortunately, we have the distinction of having the longest unbroken streak of any state in the nation of voting Democrat (sic) for president,, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty acknowledged to the state's national convention delegation Thursday ... ‘But there's always hope,' he told reporters later. ‘With this excitement and the momentum and the energy taking place in Wisconsin and some of the media spillover that Wisconsin has in Minnesota and the fact that Barack Obama hasn't delivered in terms of his promises or the economic results, that gives us signs of hope.’ … Nationally, the race is a toss-up, but momentum could shift to one side or the other this fall, said Minnesota ... national committee member, Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Johnson. ‘I think it's going to take a bit of a national wave’, he said. ‘I feel pretty good that that might be coming.’ Johnson said he thinks the 8th Congressional District is key to the presidential race in Minnesota.”
For MPR, Mark Zdechlik writes: “Minnesotan Republican leaders say they are leaving the GOP convention confident that conservative Minnesotan voters will unite behind the party ticket. However, some delegates are heading home angry with the national Republican Party and its nominee, Mitt Romney. … Minnesota Ron Paul delegate Mark Zasadny of Roseville said if the election were held right now he would vote for former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate for president. ‘It seems like the clear message was like the grassroots movement is not really welcome in the Republican Party. So that's kind of hard to swallow when they come around and say, you know, 'OK, are you ready to unite behind the Romney campaign and the RNC,’ Zasadny said. "And it's like, 'well you just tried to cut our throats.' So how are we supposed to respond to that?' " By supporting your team, pal.
For the Strib, Baird Helgeson and Kevin Diaz say: “Romney, who has spent a year methodically dispensing with rivals and grooming himself for this run, faces an enormous challenge in unifying a party uneasy about his conservative bona fides. But he appeared to make inroads on Thursday night, including among the divided Minnesota delegation. ‘He's come alive’, said Janet Beihoffer, a Republican Party committeewoman from Lakeville. ‘He's speaking from the heart ... He's finally letting it out. It's the best thing that's happened to us in a long time.’ … While an emboldened Republican Party has coalesced around Romney, he faced one of his toughest audiences in the Minnesota delegation, which handed 33 of its 40 votes for the nomination to libertarian Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. Hours before Romney spoke, several hundred Paul delegates from around the nation gathered in an angry rally ... to protest new party rules that they fear will diminish their importance in future primaries and caucuses.” Isn’t that “he’s come alive” stuff a rip-off of Gene Wilder?
At the New York Times, Michael D. Shear says: “On Thursday evening, as Mitt Romney prepared to formally accept his party’s nomination for president, [Tim] Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota, walked through the convention hall, largely unnoticed. ‘Who is that guy?’ one Republican delegate asked as he walked by. Another woman asked [to] have her picture taken next to him. Another man said he liked what he heard when Mr. Pawlenty visited Alabama as a candidate. … The fact that he did not get picked may allow Mr. Pawlenty to be a bit more candid. Asked the chances that Mr. Romney might win Minnesota, he shrugged. ‘It remains a state that tilts toward Democrats, but it’s not inconceivable that a Republican could win there,’ he said. ‘We have in the past. Not in the presidential recently.’ ”
A DFL-friendly poll has Rick Nolan ahead of GOP Congressman Chip Cravaack by 3 percent in the 8th District. Scott Bland of the National Journal reports: “Less than 10 weeks out from Election Day, a coalition of outside groups including House Majority PAC has released another poll showing a Republican incumbent in a statistical dead heat with his Democratic challenger. A survey conducted earlier this week for the Democratic-aligned super PAC, along with SEIU, AFSCME, and Friends of Democracy, found Rep. Chip Cravaack, R-Minn., at only 44 percent in a general election matchup against Democratic ex-Rep. Rick Nolan, who received 47 percent of the vote. ... Nolan, who served in Congress in the late '70s and early '80s, has not fundraised well and, especially after a bruising Democratic primary, he has a cash gap to make up on Cravaack. But outside groups including House Majority PAC and the Minnesota Democrat-Farmer-Labor Party — which came to his aid in the primary — will help make up some of that space.”
Are those 300 St. Jude layoffs a result of the medical device tax? James Walsh of the Strib reports: “St. Jude Medical Inc. said Thursday that it has laid off 300 employees, including 80 of its workers in Minnesota, as part of a broader companywide reorganization expected to slash $50 million to $60 million in costs in 2013. … The amount of anticipated savings is close to what company executives expect St. Jude will have to pay in 2013 as part of a new federal medical device tax, but [spokeswoman Amy Jo] Meyer said, ‘The medical device tax was one of many factors that contributed to the rationale for the realignment of our business, which resulted in the reduction of operating expenses.' … Thomas Gunderson, a senior analyst with Piper Jaffray & Co., said there appears to be a strong connection between the layoffs and reorganization and fallout from the new medical device tax. Starting in January, medical device makers will have to pay a 2.3 percent excise tax on products they sell. The tax is expected to raise $2 billion a year to help pay for President Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The tax is expected to cost St. Jude about $61 million in 2013.”
He’s gone … but the residual stuff is irresistible. The AP story says: “Brett Favre shouldn't have to respond to some embarrassing claims about his personal life that two massage therapists are making in a lawsuit, his lawyers say. The massage therapists say the New York Jets blacklisted them after they objected to suggestive messages the legendary quarterback allegedly sent to another woman. Among other things, they asked him to admit or deny he solicited women for sex trysts and sent explicit photos to a former Jets game hostess. The request was part of a procedural step in their 2011 lawsuit. Favre's attorneys filed papers this week asking a court to say he doesn't have to answer. They say some of the requests are irrelevant and inappropriate, including a bid to get him to acknowledge that a lewd photo that appeared on a sports gossip website depicts his own anatomy.” What’s the country coming to when a football star has to respond to stuff like this?
Another icon of a different age bites the dust … In the Winona Daily News, Nathan Hansen says: “Returnable glass bottles of Coca-Cola in Winona will soon be gone forever. The Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Winona, the last one in the country still making the returnable 61/2-ounce glass bottles, has announced it’s ending the practice after an 80-year run. In a statement, Coca-Cola of Winona general manager and vice president LeRoy Telstad said manufacturing standards no longer match the bottler’s ‘vintage beverage’ line, and upgrading won’t be a sound business decision. After the current inventory is depleted, he said, the company will no longer offer the returnable bottles, once available in a number of sizes.”
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GOP leaves Tampa, sees 'signs of hope'
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