Minnesota - MPR Poll: Presidential race a dead heat

[ps1074]

A new poll suggests Minnesota voters are evenly divided between re-electing President George Bush or replacing him with Democratic rival John Kerry. The survey, commissioned by Minnesota Public Radio and the St. Paul Pioneer Press, shows 45 percent of likely voters favor Sen. Kerry and 44 percent support Bush. Ralph Nader attracted 2 percent support. Those results haven't changed much in the last few months

...

Independent candidate Ralph Nader has support from only 2 percent of respondents. If he's removed from the equation, Kerry moves ahead to a three-point lead, but the race remains a statistical tie.

http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2004/07/...

[rfranklin]

1. If the numbers were reversed, this would be...

"Bush takes commanding lead in Minnesota..."

[dusty64]

3. Yup, that is

definitely true.

[SheBop]

2. Why did this thread

immediately take me back to the time when Paul Wellstone was alive? I swear things would be much better for Kerry had Wellstone not been murdered, oops I mean died, in a plane crash.

[WI_DEM]

4. Lot of work to do in Minnesota

Wisconsin and Iowa. Luckily, lots of undecideds and if history is any indicator they usually vote 2-1 against the incumbent.

[Demoiselle]

5. How can a state that sent Paul Wellstone....

...to the Senate be a dead heat at this point in time!!!??? Good grief! It depresses me. I just finished a great book by Minnesota native (and current resident of St. Paul) Garrison Keillor called
"Homegrown Democrat." It's a great, rambling, moving essay on why he's a Democrat and why everybody else should be too. Maybe we should airdrop a couple million copies into the state.

[indigo32]

7. My mom read that last night

said it was wonderful. Being a big fan of his I will definitely be reading it.
As for the poll, I dunno, I have trouble believing it based on my personal experiences. And I live in the burbs. But all we can do is keep working.

[LimpingLib]

8. Stood for something and believed it.Fought hard with sincerity and vigor

You might not believe this but Wellstones base was rural areas. Yup the places that normaly deliever heavy vote totals for the GOP . In Wellstones last race it was his GOP opponent that had to make an effort to appeal to the rural voters.

Anyway to suggest that "if Wellstone could win then ANY Democrat could" is absolutily whats wrong with conventional political thinking in the Democratic party today.

Wellstones voters saw him as populist and his hardest sell was in the cities.

Anyway unless the GOP senator is ethicaly challenged (like Rod Grams which enabled the Democrats to narrowly take a seat in 2000 with 49% of the vote)then Minnesota can hardly stand any DEmocrat aside from Wellstone.Wellstone aside, I cant think of the last time Democrats got over 50% of the vote in any statewide federal race or even Governors race. Well Clinton got almost 51% in 1996 because Dole didnt try in the state plus Wellstone helped him tht year. Mondale got over 50% I think in 1984. Maybe Dukakis did. All in the distant past.

[Lefty Pragmatist]

6. Wellstone was murdered?

I wasn't wearing my tin foil hat and I didn't get that transmission. What's the scoop?

[bloodyjack]

9. neither did I.

Why would he have been assassinated anyway?