Could Dr. Kevin Weiland Have Beaten Kristi Noem?

Written by Sam Hurst

The Queen is dead. Long live the Queen.

 

It is the first principle in politics that you can't get elected by criticizing the voters. Luckily, journalists write under no such constraints.

 

South Dakota voters, in their infinite wisdom, have just elected the state's biggest welfare queen to Congress. They have elected a woman who has shown no desire to study the problems of capital formation, job creation, tax policy, foreign trade, or the federal budget. She has nothing to say about foreign policy, the distorted structure of defense spending, or military strategy.  She breaks out in hives in the presence of science. She cannot specifically detail how it is that she intends to balance the budget or shrink the size of the federal government.

By Sam Hurst 05 November 2010 Full Article

South Dakota: Is Our Future Behind Us or In Front of Us?

Written by Sam Hurst

"Rebuilding our infrastructure" is all the rage these days. From the White House comes the battle cry that economic recovery, jobs, community development, and national security are all tied to rebuilding America. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Scott Heidepriem goes so far as to tag every political commercial with the promise to invest South Dakota's meager resources in schools, roads and bridges.

By Sam Hurst 23 October 2010 Full Article

The Democratic Party Enthusiasm Gap—Two Photos Tell It All

I have been thinking about the problem of the enthusiasm gap among Democrats for several months now. Congresswoman Herseth-Sandlin has certainly done everything she can to keep Democrats away from the voting booth on election day. Scott Heidepriem is trying hard, but his message is complicated and however accurate it is as a description of the state's fiscal crisis and Republican cronyism in Pierre, it is not clear that his message has lit a populist fire of excitement at the base of the Party.

 

So...as I contemplated how to illustrate this serious problem for Democrats, last weekend, I was driving by the Labor Temple, and it reminded me of an old photo in my files from '08.

 

What a difference it makes to have Tim Johnson at the top of the ticket rather than Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin.

 

Sam Hurst

 

 

By Sam Hurst 12 October 2010

The Logic of Binary Politics Compels Democrats to Vote for Herseth-Sandlin

Written by Sam Hurst

How can I criticize Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin for being a terrible member of Congress, and a worse Democrat, then in the next breath turn around and argue that Democrats have every good reason to vote for her in November? Binary math. The logic of the computer. Or, for those not so inclined...common sense. If last week's poll is any indication, Herseth-Sandlin's modest ascendancy shows that Democrats, however grudgingly, are already getting the message. While the congresswoman and her staff may argue that her anti-Democratic

campaign is winning the day in conservative South Dakota, the more cynical truth may well be that in the last weeks of the campaign disillusioned Democrats are finally accepting the relentless binary logic of the computer.

By Sam Hurst 13 September 2010 Full Article