If you want real welfare reform, you focus on a good education, good health care and a good job....
If you want to reduce poverty, you focus on a good education, good health care and a good job....
If you want a stable middle class....
If you want to have citizens who can participate in democracy....
And if you want to end the violence … you could build a million new prisons and you could fill them all up, but you will never end this cycle of violence unless you invest in the health and the skill and the intellect and the character of our children — you focus on a good education, good health care and a good job!
And other than that, I don't feel strongly about anything.
Editorial: Paul Wellstone / An idealistic servant of Minnesota
A voice for the "little fellers"
At campaign headquarters, an awful silence
Opponent Coleman mourns passing of worthy foe
Doug Grow: Wellstone celebrated the promise, privilege of election day
Sheila Wellstone became a respected voice in her own right
Other victims were public servants, too
Outside of the obvious tragedy involved in the death of Sen. Wellstone and the others aboard his plane, there is a political subtext. Leaders of Minnesota's DFL (Democrat-Farmer-Labor, as it is known in Minnesota) must decide whether or not to replace Wellstone on the November ballot. There is recent precedent for this sort of thing (Jean Carnahan), but the likelihood of DFL success in defeating Republican Norm Coleman seems remote.
For more information on applicable Minnesota election law, I found a reference here:
....scroll down to Subdivision 2(b) -- appears to allow the Democratic Farmer Labor Party....to nominate a replacement for Wellstone on the ballot: "If [a] vacancy in nomination occurs through the candidate's death or catastrophic illness, the nomination certificate must be filed within seven days after the vacancy in nomination occurs but no later than four days before the general election."
The future suddenly looks very different. Once Minnesotans and Democrats can set aside their shock and grief to address the political realities, it will be interesting to see how all of this plays out. Still, politics seems so trivial at this moment....
