Almanac: At the Capitol

Gov. Pawlenty's national prospects and travels lead my Campaign Notebook this week. The week began with a warm welcome full of autograph seekers at Farmfest and ended with the story and photo on the front page of the New York Times.  

In between the coverage ranges from CNN's bold question to him, "What does the Republican Party just suck at?" to the passionate GOPAC appearance where it's ever more clear that he's modeled himself after a "positive" Reagan image to the solid speech before the National Press Club to the Pioneer Press detailing more than three dozen trips out of state this year.

All I can say about the Senate race this week is it was odd.  First, a former big city mayor Norm Coleman having the crowd on his side at Farmfest to ads that are just getting uglier all the time.  Franken's ad breaks a simple rule of politics, don't pay money to point out your own faults as it mentions the fact he didn't pay taxes in some states (but overpaid in his home state).  

Coleman's ad seems to come pretty close to distorting your opponents image. And it's still August. I was interviewing some undecided independent voters this week who all said they're already sick of the ads and don't even track who's slinging what mud at whom, they said they're just getting a bad taste in their mouths about both candidates.  Faris gets credit for getting on the air. Uldrich makes the mistake of uttering the phrase "I agree with President Bush" don't matter what follows that; it's not a quote that wins an election right now. 

But the bad press move of the week probably goes to Obama in Minnesota. When radio and print reporters are mad and complaining it's not good:

MPR: Some reporters were told that there would not be a media availability before or after the event so imagine the surprise when some in the press corps saw him holding a news conference for a select group of TV stations last night.

PiPress: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is stiffing us folks in the local print media and non-contributors during his campaign stop here today.