6:29 p.m.: LIVE FROM HOLLYWOOD, I mean, live from Roosevelt High in South Minneapolis, welcome to I Don’t Hate America’s liveblog coverage of the debate between DFL candidates for U.S. Senate (Mike Ciresi, Jim Cohen, Al Franken and Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer) to take on incumbent GOP Sen. Norm Coleman in 2008. I entered the building a short time ago after working my way through the crowd of supporters, predominately those for Ciresi and JNP. That makes for great visibility on 28th Ave.
(Full disclosure: I took a cup of coffee from JNP’s table. Sue me; it’s freakin’ cold out!)
Back with full coverage in about 25 minutes.
6:47 p.m.: I’ve seen Ciresi, JNP and Cohen all glad-handing around the auditorium and at their tables set up by the entrance to the building.
Mega thanks to Charley Underwood and SD 62 for the great set-up for press and the bloggers. Questions are coming in from the audience, which is filing into the almost already completely full auditorium.
7:07 p.m.: Franken has appeared, followed by Brian Melendez, DFL State Chair who will be moderating the debate. The candidates have been called to the stage and we are about ready to begin. Each candidate is seated behind one of their campaign signs. The candidates are seated as follows, left to right: Cohen, Ciresi, Franken, JNP.
Ann Friedrich, chair of DFL SD 62 has welcomed us. So far, like the last debate, I am the only one with a laptop. Friedrich introduces Dave Lee, DFL CD-5 chair, to announce the rules. Two minute opening statements, closing statements and response time. Lee has asked audience members to hold their applause until the end, which didn’t happen in Savage. We have a standing room only crowd; don’t tell the fire department.
7:09 p.m.: Cohen is giving his opening statement. He gives a loud first statement saying how he is the one who will return Paul Wellstone’s seat to the Democrats, which gets mild applause. Goes over his background in advocacy. Talks about how we have to listen to others with different ideological principles and knows we have to work together; says he is the only one who realizes that of the four. Sounds like he is giving a stump speech.
7:10 p.m.: Bad microphone feedback…EEEK! Ciresi says every night he and his wife get on their knees thanking God we only have 14 more months of this administration. Says it is time to redo the tax code. Says we need to return to constitutional principles and get back to the common good to build this nation for all of our children. Talks about the debt we pass on to our children. Says the GOP believes we shouldn’t have a death tax, he believes we shouldn’t have a birth tax.
7:12 p.m.: Franken is up and says Bush is driving us into a ditch. Says we know Bush is leaving soon, but his enablers like Coleman should too. Talks about health care, affordable education, etc.
7:14 p.m.: JNP is introduced to an absolutely deafening roar from the crowd. Says he will hold Coleman accountable. Says he can’t believe it when he hears Democrats say impeachment is off the table, which gets a roar. Talks about how we can’t just slow the car down, but must get on a different path way. All of these introduction speeches have been similar to the ones given in Savage. Over half of this crowd goes nuts for JNP.
7:17 p.m.: All candidates are asked the first question, yes or no, if they will abide by the endorsement. All candidates say yes, while Cohen adds that there must be an endorsement. Confusion with the mics as there are three for four candidates.
7:18 p.m.: Next question is about health care. Franken says he would mandate that every state goes to universal health care in the way they like and that they would goto single payer for kids. More mic trouble EEEEEKKK. Franken says kids are cheap compared to seniors as he points to Ciresi, perhaps unintentionally as it seems he doesn’t know why people are laughing. Franken seems lost among the mic confusion and laughter and ends up struggling with the question.
7:21 p.m.: JNP says he will work with “every ounce of his being to get to single payer health care” which gets applause. Says if we go Al’s route we will have the Mississippi-Minnesota divide again and that we shouldn’t compromise before we fight. Says he would have supported the vetoed S-CHIP bill and mentions the total cost of the bill is less than three months of war spending. The mic problems are irritating AHHH.
7:23 p.m.: Cohen says he too, advocates for single payer. Says quality and affordable health care should be a constitutional right. Says insurance companies are milking the middle class. Says we need a leader who is a statesman and who is responsive to the American people. Says we have been talking about universal for 57 years and it can’t last any longer.
7:25 p.m.: Ciresi says he wouldn’t accept health care Senators get until all citizens get it. Ciresi says it has been his responsibility to make sure people get quality health care. Says we need good preventative health care. Advocates for a federal health board to require all health care to cover all preexisting conditions, be portable and cap administrative costs. Realizes a lot of people here love single payer but that Minnesota has great health care and we don’t have it here. I think we have figured out the audio issue whooo.
7:28 p.m.: Next question asks about sub prime mortgages. JNP talks about how this is what he talks about when the country is unraveling. Says the foreclosures are linked to the fact that we allow predatory lending and we need to stop it. Says wealth lately is going to the richest fraction of 1% and with that inequality pressure goes on poor families but middle class people aren’t exempt either. Says 40-1 was the pay ratio with CEOs to employees in 1980, now it’s 485-1. Says we need a progressive tax system and allow unions to form to ensure equity.
7:29 p.m.: Cohen says this is the result of companies involved in corporate greed and that we need to look at it through those stark terms. Says it is a similar situation to the fuel crisis. Says with wages stagnant we can’t fix it. Says the common citizen is not moving forward. Says we need to enforce the law and send predatory lenders to jail to make an example that this shouldn’t happen in America. Says 78% of citizens would join unions if they didn’t have management pressure against it.
7:33 p.m.: Ciresi says Coleman’s fix is to invade your pension…if you have one. Says we have securitized mortgages. Says lenders can renegotiate but they are only looking at certain areas, IE treating north Minneapolis differently than New Prague. Says we should look at those engaging in fraud. Says next October more adjustable rate mortgages are coming due and it isn’t over.
7:35 p.m.: Franken says Fannie Mae should renegotiate as many of the loans are they can. He too advocates that predatory lenders should goto prison. He too speaks of inequality. Says there is a hostility towards unionization from the “conservative radicals.” Says the price of oil is going up because of demand and we should decrease demand on oil by having a green economy. Says when consume confidence goes down, the dollar goes down. Says we create jobs by creating a green economy.
7:38 p.m.: Next question is about the major presidential candidate’s views on Iraq that we will be there till 2013 and if they agree or not. Cohen says he has a plan to bring home troops. Says we should renounce Iraqi oil, which is why we are there in the first place. Says we should convene an international peace conference with all of those in the mideast. Says Iraq is a senseless, moral tragedy with an occupation against the will of the Iraqi people. Says we could take the Iraq budget and put every child through college for free. Talks too of the green collar economy.
7:40 p.m.: Ciresi says it isn’t his plan to keep troops till 2013. Advocates timetables for withdrawl. Says this is an issue of separation of powers and that article I of the constitution is the Congress and says a reason we are in this war is because Congress didn’t fulfill it’s role in oversight. Says he is the man with the leadership to do that.
7:42: p.m.: Franken rhetorically asks “two minutes on Iraq?” Franken says we have a responsibility and we shouldn’t have a precipitous withdrawal. Says we need an international conference under the UN security council, but says it isn’t a plan, but a goal. Says we need to start withdrawing. Says this is very complex and isn’t about choosing from column A or column B, but is something that needs to be discussed for more than two minutes.
7:44 p.m.: JNP talks about how he debated Jim Ramstad about the war and how he advised Paul Wellstone on foreign policy. Says the reason the U.S. isn’t leaving Iraq is because it was never the administration’s intention to leave. Says the international community has a willingness to help fix Iraq, but won’t if it’s America’s desire to have permanent military bases. Says we need to help the Iraqi refugees and we haven’t. Says we can’t do that until we pull out.
7:47 p.m.: Next question is if the candidate would support convening a new 9-11 commission. Ciresi doesn’t understand the question and wants to talk about Iraq more. Says we can’t just get out right away which upsets a couple of audience members who are vocal about their displeasure. Says the administration has done nothing to fix mideast issues, and now they call a conference.
7:49 p.m.: Franken says he actually understood the question. Says there is a small minority of people who believe 9-11 was an inside job, which gets a few cheers. Says he would support an ongoing 9-11 commission. Mentions Sen. Bob Kerrey who was on the 9-11 commission and that the CIA wouldn’t allow the commission to interview key suspects. Says the 9-11 commission had to submit questions to the CIA and the questions came back from them. Says it is am important question and only has the insight because Kerrey came in and they discussed it.
7:51 p.m.: JNP says he understood the question, too. He says he is staying with what he can prove which is this administration planned this war against Iraq long before 9-11, which was “America’s Grand Strategy.” Says the neo-cons had a plan for control and used 9-11 “shamefully to lie us into a pre-planned war.” Says we aren’t sure what we would find out from the commission but if what Bush did wasn’t an impeachable offense, he isn’t sure what is.
7:53: p.m.: Cohen says we were lied into the war on false assumptions and that we lost an opportunity to get Bin-Laden. Says we must say this occupation makes no sense for America or the middle east and we should find a way of leaving sensibly. Says the 9-11 commission’s bi-partisan recommendations need to be implemented. Says we need to get out on a timetable which the Democrats haven’t voted for yet. (Is this true?). Says Senators and Congressmen need to come together to find a common good together.
7:55 p.m.: Next question is on what needs to be done about global warming. Franken says scientists have proven the earth is warming up and it is caused by humans. Says it needs to be addressed with great urgency, which gets applause. Name drops Al Gore. Ugh. Says there is no silver bullet but there are silver buckshots. Says we should build wind turbines. Says he met with the UAW and says we should build electric cars at the Ford Plant. Says we need commuter rail, light rail, and solar energy. Talks about the UM-Morris biomass plant and that they will have zero carbon footprint by 2010. Says this will help America be great again.
7:58 p.m.: JNP says this is the greatest issue causing him to enter the race for Senate. Give his “most important decade” spiel. Mentions how he has talked to Will Steger lately. Says we can’t talk about cutting carbon emissions 80% by 2050 if we aren’t doing anything to get there now. Mentions his opposition to nuclear power.
8:00 p.m.: Cohen says global warming will affect every aspect of our life if we don’t do something now. Mentions Will Steger as well. Says we know global warming can be addressed and that it’s an opportunity to reduce CO2 by 15-20 percent in the next 10-12 years and it will show we are serious about this if we begin with that.
8:02 p.m.: Ciresi says his law firm has come up with a green plan. Says we need to educate people what they can do as far as conservation. Says the environment is not just about protecting the environment but is about creation of middle class jobs and helping national security. Says experts say if global warming continues we will have flooding requiring military intervention. Says we need to take away the tax incentives of oil companies.
8:05 p.m.: Next question is about global economic competitiveness. JNP says we need a plan to build an infrastructure based on the renewable energy economy. Says we should manufacture solar panels here, and we can’t even outsource the jobs putting them on our houses. Says we need to stop “these free trade agreements which are ruining our country” to applause. Talks about how Wal-Mart can have a huge trade deficit with China while manufacturing jobs are eliminated here.
8:07 p.m.: Cohen Says NAFTA and CAFTA need to be redone and the recent agreement with Peru should also be questioned. Says we have the power and ability to make a level playing field. Says we can do that by allowing unions to organize and unions will be critical to create a green collar economy and bring hundreds of thousands of jobs here. Says we can create new kinds of jobs here and make sure the trade deficit is turned around.
8:09: p.m.: Ciresi says with CAFTA and NAFTA there was no one at the table for the environmental and labor issues, just people protesting. Says we need to reform them with these protections. Says if China is going to produce steel for America, for instance, they should be faced with the same environmental standards steel produced in America is.
8:11 p.m.: Franken says the new Peru agreement will be enforced by the Bush administration. Says Congress should have oversight of them instead. Says global warming is “global” but India and China are building the equivalent of one coal plant per week. Says this is one of the reasons we may have to find clean coal technology and sequester the CO2 and sell the technology to China and India. Says the CO2 those countries produce is an “absolute crisis.”
8:13 p.m.: Next question is what do you think about no child left behind? Cohen says “all children have been left behind by no child left behind!” Says we should allow mentoring of teachers because teachers leave within the first five years. Says if it isn’t revamped it needs to be scrapped, now. Says he is a teacher and doesn’t like the way the act is implemented.
8:15 p.m.: Ciresi says he would introduce a bill to immediately scrap no child left behind. Says NCLB assumes all children start from the same place. Talks about the importance of early learning and benefits such as vocabulary. Talks about how children of color are behind and there should be support services locally, and our education system isn’t doing that.
8:17 p.m.: Franken tells his story about her daughter quitting her job teaching in the Bronx because of NCLB. Talks about McNamara’s Fallacy which says the things that will be easy to test will be tested, such as reading, writing, arithmetic and test taking. Says her daughter now teaches children to cook, which also teaches things like counting. Talks about how reading to children improves things like vocabulary. Says NCLB doesn’t measure progress.
8:21 p.m.: JNP says NCLB takes creativity out of the classroom. Says education funding depending on property taxes needs to stop. Says special education kids should be mainstreamed. Says with a 10% reduction in military spending and cutting the tax breaks to the richest one percent will fund education.
8:22 p.m.: Next question is whether you favor force or diplomacy in Iran. Ciresi wants to talk about education more and that he is opposed to the probation elements of NCLB. Says he is infavor of diplomacy in Iran. Talks about mideast peace. Says Iran has a fairly young population and they don’t like the government which is taking all of the economic gains for themselves. Says we need to engage in forceful, sustained diplomacy with Iran.
8:25 p.m.: Franken says we have a very dangerous situation in Iran. Says we need sanctions but we are getting them from Europe, not Russia. Says due to oil exportation, Russia likes instability in the middle east. Says Congress should not give the president any authority to bomb Iran.
8:26 p.m.: JNP says he doesn’t want Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, but we can stop it with diplomacy. We also need to be aware of the US’s covert program concerning Iran, he says. He says we should work to make it a nuclear free zone. He says we also need to know that the lesson Iran learned was that you’re safer if you have a nuclear weapon, considering Iraq didn’t have weapons of mass destruction. Says we better not fall for the fear again.
8:29 p.m.: Cohen goes back to NCLB and says teachers should have a minimum salary. Says he shares the views of the other three. Says we need a surge in diplomacy. Says if they are a threat, we need to find a way to bring them to the table. Says if we are going to have multilateral discussions we need to have leaders that respect the people’s interests and the people are ahead of the politicians. Says we should build the coalition to make sure Iran doesn’t become a threat.
8:31 p.m.: Next question is about GLBT issues. Franken says they should have the right to marry which gets applause. He says hes been married for 32 years and its the best thing thats happened to him and doesn’t think others should be denied that right. Says we used to have laws against whites marrying Filipinos and blacks. Hopes we can look back and think that preventing gays marrying was that ridiculous. Talks about how Massachusetts has the lowest divorce rate which shows it isn’t a threat.
8:33 p.m.: JNP can’t fathom how we are discriminatory against certain groups of people. Says he is concerned that because the Republicans can’t run on their record, they will run on this issue. Says he laments the use of religion to discriminate. Says they will also run on the politics of fear relating to terror, and the politics of fear relating to immigrants.
8:35 p.m.: Cohen says love is love is love. Says marriage is just a divisional word. Supports total non-discrimination against gays. Says we need to make sure there is no discrimination and we need to take action against it. Says he supports civil unions, but would support marriages as well. Says we should fight for love in all parts of our community, which gets his biggest applause of the night.
8:37 p.m.: Ciresi says there shouldn’t be a constitutional amendment for or against gay marriage. Talks of his all inclusive support for ENDA. Thinks the main wedge issue will be immigration. Says it is unbelievable we have not passed an immigration bill in a land of immigrants. Totally blew off the question, wow!
8:40 p.m.: Next question is about abortion. JNP is for legal abortion and talks about how a large killer in Nicauragua was illegal abortions. Is in favor of expanding adoption and family planning funds. Says Bush’s first act was to cut off family planning funds for the UN due to a concern of abortion. Says this led to more abortions. Says population growth is a concern and it’s due to women not being empowered.
8:42 p.m.: Cohen says he is pro choice without restriction. Says those decisions are private and should not be intruded upon. Says family planning is essential. Says he was active for Zero Population Growth. Says it is an issue about the resources we have available. He too thinks we need a fair immigration plan with a path to legal citizenship.
8:44 p.m.: Ciresi says he was pro choice in 2000 and is now. Is tired of the Republicans saying they will get government out of our lives but on these issues they have gotten even more in people’s lives. Says we should have a politics of hope and politics of vision. Let’s dictate the agenda to them, not the other way around, he says.
8:46 p.m.: Franken says “safe, legal, and rare” concerning abortion. Says abortions went down every year Bill Clinton was in office. Says abstinence only education doesn’t work. Talks about how they made the surgeon general change his report. Says abortion went down in the Clinton years because poverty also went down. Says if health care is universal, abortion will go down. Mentions briefly about suppressing science. Says there is nothing conservative about suppressing science, and that has to stop.
8:46 p.m.: Melendez thanks the timekeepers. Closing statements, JNP is up first. Says we should be enthusiastic for the opportunity to make the changes it is time for. Says it wasn’t his life plan to run for the US Senate. Talks about his international experiences, writing and fighting for economic justice. Says these with his skills teaching conflict resolution make him qualified. Wants people to join him in a partnership to organize and put aside the politics of fear for a politics of hope and defeat Norm Coleman. Deafening roar from the crowd.
8:51 p.m.: Franken gives a joke about Bush’s articulateness. Says he found himself being a cheerleader to students on his college tour, saying we can be a great country again. That means not torturing people. Says we need to work diplomatically with adversaries. Says when he was eight years old Eisenhower did a victory tour and in every city around the world he was welcomed. Spoke about how now Bush can’t even goto Mankato without kicking out two of Tim Walz’s supporters. Says we change things by kicking out Bush’s friends like Coleman. Loud cheer.
8:53 p.m.: Ciresi said his father had a seventh grade education and lost his mom at 12 to breast cancer. Ciresi says the college students he has spoken with are optimistic. Says we should use our moral might not military might. Says people come here to America for opportunity. Says he dreams of people getting good educations, good jobs, a constitution that is upheld. Says he has taken on powerful industries and delivered for Minnesotans for 35 years. Loud cheer.
8:56 p.m.: Cohen says he has worked for Americans for 40 years with his relevant leadership experience. Says one of our challenges is that Washington is gummed up with politics and the kind of polarizing that goes on leading to no S-CHIP, no Farm bill, no immigration policy and we’re still in Iraq. Says its because we donit have leadership with guts. Says if we listened to common sense of Minnesotans we would be out of Iraq and have single payer health care. Goes over his time but still gets a good cheer.
8:59 p.m.: This concludes IDHA’s liveblog coverage. Come back for a recap, and drive home safely.
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