State fair observations

I spent some time in all the political booths and the main impression I got was people really couldn't care less about politics at this point, especially presidential politics. It seemed that there were some people trying to figure out where they stand between the DFL senate candidates but otherwise it was pretty basic stuff.

As for the Independence Party booth I spent about an hour in the booth trying to get a feel of where the party was headed and really got no indication that it's headed anywhere. The main thing they were pushing was IRV in St Paul which is great but that's someone Else's battle the Independence Party of Minnesota should push for it state wide and while getting it to as many people as possible at the local level is a good start it would be nice if they at least appeared active in the statewide push. This is one of the few issues where the Independence Party is able to establish exactly where it stands, to me when you stand for something you boldly stand tall and proud and go beyond what is currently reasonable in your expectations.

All that being said the Independence Party can have IRV but it still has to reestablish itself across the board to the level it was at in 2002, cause as much as party loyalist might think we have the best candidate, and many close observers might agree IRV isn't going to move a candidate from 5% to 50% if your not getting the exposure that the Independence Party was granted in 2002. It really seems to me that the current leaders of the party don't know what it was that made the party somewhat successful with Jesse Ventura. The quality of candidates is clearly up but the message is nowhere near where it needs to be.