Two items before closing up shop
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MPR Capitol reporter Tim Pugmire is going to have a piece on Monday morning, looking at the Republican race in the 6th District. We'll have extended interviews with Michele Bachmann, Jay Esmay, Phil Krinkie, and Jim Knoblach. I'll post the entire thing online at 3pm Sunday and you'll find it here at that time.
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There's a place where good ideas go to die and maybe that's where this one will end up too, but at least it's worth a shot. Yesterday I suggested that it would be good to have the three candidates for U.S. Senate sit and listen to the stories that the soon-to-be-unemployed autoworkers at the Ford Assembly Plant in St. Paul have to tell. No speeches. No using them as props to make a point. Just listen and, with any luck, learn.
I wasn't volunteering to organize it, but one candidate has already responded, saying it was a good idea. Maybe the other two will join in. I know their "people" read Polinaut, so here's your invitation. Of course, we also have to convince a few folks within these hallowed halls that it's OK to have three candidates for a top job in the same place, and not actually feel compelled to ask them what they have to say. (It's sort of like putting a dish of jellybeans out and not digging in and eating them). There'll be time for that, and it would be cool to find out if what they learned changed how they feel about certain things.
These folks have great stories and great passion about it means to work everyday. They have histories in which several generations have all worked in that plant. And they have perspective that's valuable.
I just had a thought. What if we got Studs Terkel to come host the show?
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