By Randall Rasmussen

Stealing once again from Mount Blogmore colleague Kevin Woster, he has a story in Tuesday’s Journal about coming U.S. Senate race between Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson and his Republican challenger, Joel Dykstra.

Dykstra told Woster that high fuel prices are going to be a key issue in his campaign to unseat Johnson.

“It’s impossible, I think, for incumbent members of Congress to claim that everything’s the president’s fault and that there’s nothing they could have done about it,” he said.

Johnson’s campaign manager Steve Jarding countered that President Bush and Vice President Cheney are responsible for high gas prices.

“Good luck trying to sell that one as a Democratic issue,” he said. “The energy policy we have today was written in Dick Cheney’s office.”

I rather think our nation’s energy policy has been written in the offices of the Sierra Club and other enviro groups.

But that’s up for debate and is likely to be a hot topic in this year’s Senate race in South Dakota and elsewhere.

Can Dykstra peg Johnson with culpability for having been in Congress for 22 years and doing nothing to solve our energy problem?

Or can Johnson successfully blame $4-a-gallon gas on Bush, Cheney and Republican policies?

By Kevin Woster

I’m confused.

I know Mike Rounds is a lame-duck governor, but when did he become a political liability?

And why?

The chatter these days in the political circles - where I often fit in like a pooly informed square peg - is that Rounds could become a liability for Lt. Gov. Dennis Daugaard in his campaign for governor in 2010.

So, uh, how’s come?

How do you take a guy who stunned the state with a 2002 primary upset, topped Jim Abbott in the general 57-42 percent, then raced past Jack Bill in 62 percent to 36 percent four years later and turn him into a political weakness?

What the heck happened in the last four years to put mallard feathers on a fellow who seemed to soar like an eagle?

Or is this all just political quackery?

By Kevin Woster

Honestly, I was never quite sure what it really meant.

The Second Amendment, I mean.

Did it guarantee me the right to keep a half dozen guns in my house, mostly for sport hunting, possibly for self defense? Or was it all based on “a well regulated militia”?

On a 5-4 vote, with the two Bush appointees making the difference, the U.S. Supreme Court seems to have settled the question, affirming an individual’s right to own and keep firearms - including individuals living in Washington, D.C., where the 32-year-old gun ban led to the lawsuit that led to the high-court decision.

Tim Johnson, John Thune and Stephanie Herseth Sandlin are all praising the decision, which still leaves room for restrictions on gun ownership. Only well-known gun-control advocate Bob Newland has come out against the court ruling. (I joke, Bob, put down the Glock and relax yourself, in whatever manner you consider appropriate.)

And seriously, the Supreme Court ruling seems like a reasonable decision. Don’t you think?

By Randall Rasmussen

Mount Blogmore colleague Kevin Woster has a story in Thursday’s Journal about District 32 Republican senate candidate Stan Adelstein kicking Elli Schweisow out of a ribbon-cutting ceremony last week at the West River Republican candidates’ office in Rapid City.

Schweisow, who defeated Adelstein two years ago in the District 32 Republican primary, is running for the state senate as an independent this time.

Adelstein said he asked her to leave the ceremony because “she is an anti-Republican candidate, as far as I’m concerned, and as far as the Republican Party is concerned.”

Schweisow said she is still a Republican and stopped by the office to offer some cookies and words of encouragement to the other Republican candidates in their races this fall. Excluding Adelstein, presumably.

Schweisow said she didn’t run in the GOP primary because it would have been too expensive, and that her entering the race as an independent isn’t a “grudge match” against Adelstein, who endorsed Democrat Tom Katus two years ago after he lost to Schweisow. Katus won in the general election.

So, just who is the real Republican in this race? Adelstein, who endorsed a Democrat against the Republican two years ago? Or Schwiesow, who is running as an independent even though she says she’s a registered Republican and was the GOP’s standard bearer two years ago?

Watching it all from a distance with a Cheshire cat-like grin is Katus.

As Woster writes, the gloves are off.

By Scott Aust

Frequent Blogmorite Patti Martinson pulled a bit of an upset Tuesday night, defeating incumbent Alderman Tom Johnson, who had 14 years of council experience, 465-400 in Ward 1’s runoff election.

Turnout was much less than the June 3 election. Only about a third of the people who voted three weeks ago voted tonight and obviously more people were motivated to get out to vote for Martinson.

There really wasn’t much of an issue during this year’s municipal elections, so what does Blogmore think was the deciding factor in Ward 1? A desire for change? Travel? Something else?

By Randall Rasmussen

Someone wondered why we didn’t start a thread on comedian George Carlin who died Sunday.

You asked for it, you got it.

Carlin was best known for his routine “Seven Words You Can Never Say on TV.” I remember him best for his Hippie Dippie Weatherman character.

He was hilarious and a keen observer of American culture.

Of course, today, many of the Seven Words You Can Never Say on TV are said repeatedly on television, at least cable TV, anyway.

He was an American icon who broke through the boundaries of comedy.

By Randall Rasmussen

Barack Obama will become the first presidential candidate to forego public campaign financing since the tax form checkoff began as a post-Watergate reform of elections.

Obama won’t be accepting the $85 million available to presidential candidates for the general election. Which means he can raise as much as he wants and spend as much as he wants.

John “Mr. Integrity” McCain says he will accept the public funds and the spending limits.

After sponsoring the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform legislation, he couldn’t have done otherwise.

Has Obama laid a trap for McCain?

I think McCain uses his stand on campaign finance reform to deflect attention from his involvement in the “Keating Five” scandal in the 1980s. In McCain’s new political narrative, he has seen the light and is now a warrior against the corrupting influence of money in politics.

No matter how much money Obama raises and spends, McCain is stuck with his image as a reborn political reformer and has to take the public money and the spending limits that come with it.

Public financing of elections to limit the influence of wealthy contributors is a liberal notion that many conservatives oppose. It’s ironic that it is the Democrat who is rejecting the idea of public financing of elections and the Republican who is embracing it.

By Randall Rasmussen

Energy policy is likely to be one of the main issues in the presidential campaign. On Tuesday, John McCain sought to delineate the differences between himself and Barack Obama by calling for an end to the moratorium on offshore oil drilling and criticizing Obama’s support of a windfall profits tax.

McCain spoke before a friendly crowd in energy-rich Texas, where he received a standing ovation for his support for offshore oil drilling. McCain said he wants to end the federal moratorium and allow states to decide if they want to allow offshore oil exploration.

McCain criticized the proposed windfall profits tax on oil companies, which Obama and congressional Democrats support. “If the plan sounds familiar, it’s because that was President Jimmy Carter’s big idea too — and a lot of good it did us. Now as then, all a windfall-profits tax will accomplish is to increase our dependence on foreign oil and hinder exactly the kind of domestic exploration and production we need. I’m all for recycling, but it’s better applied to paper and plastic than to the failed policies of the 1970’s,” McCain said.

Obama’s campaign shot back: “John McCain’s support of the moratorium on offshore drilling during his first presidential campaign was certainly laudable, but his decision to completely change his position and tell a group of Houston oil executives exactly what they wanted to hear today was the same Washington politics that has prevented us from achieving energy independence for decades.”

McCain has also called for a summer federal gas tax holiday.

With gasoline now costing around $4 a gallon and increased energy costs slowing down the economy, which candidate has the best energy policy is likely to be hotly debated during the campaign.

I’m all for oil exploration wherever it can be found, even in Alaska’s ANWR – which McCain opposes – in order to boost domestic oil production. Obama’s call for more investment in alternative fuels is an admirable long-term goal but few Americans own vehicles that run on alternative fuels.

Drill now could be an effective campaign slogan.

Good thread, with a flurry of thoughtful responses - from a variety of people. Nice. K.W.

By Scott Aust

A reader sent me a link to this Steve Rosenbaum post on The Huffington Post that speculates McCain will drop out because of his health and a new Republican candidate will be nominated.

One of those named as a possible replacement is our own Sen. John Thune.

Now I like wild and crazy twists, like at the end of “The Usual Suspects” when we learn exactly who Kaiser Soze was, but this seems a little nuts to me.

On the other hand, could it be so crazy it just might work?

What say you?

Tony Schwartz, who died Sunday at age 84, was a visionary. The question is: Do we still like his vision?

The ad agency designer is credited as the force behind the infamous “Daisy Ad” during Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1964 presidential run against self-professed arch conservative and hawk Barry Goldwater. The ad, which didn’t even mention Goldwater, used two contrasting images to drive home a point in the heart of the cold war: A girl picking pedals from a daisy and the violent explosion of an atomic bomb.

The ad only showed once after Goldwater backers lambasted its thinly veiled premise, but the floodgates were open. Negative campaigning — in particular, negative television ads — have since become common place. And while polls show that they are effective, is that sort of campaigning losing ground?

Nationally, Hillary Clinton managed to increase her favorable rating among voters with piercing ads against Barack Obama, but she also increased her unfavorable rating simultaneously (essentially, moving undecideds into one camp or the other).

And not all too long ago, there was the local election of Mike Rounds in which heavyweights Steve Kirby and Mark Barnett slung enough mud to allow the No. 3 underdog a clear shot at the capitol.

So what’s it going to be this year? Will the oft combative John McCain take his verbal jabs and turn them into feature length (meaning 30 to 60 seconds) attacks on Obama. And will Obama, who has worked hard to manage the image of taking the high road, get down and dirty?

Oh, we wait in breathless anticipation.

By Scott Aust

What a stunner. Tim Russert dead at 58.

You can read the AP story here.

I enjoyed watching him work. The questions he asked, the research he did, were amazing to me as a reporter. And he seemed, at least to me, to ask tough questions of people of all political stripes.

What do you think?

By Scott Aust

Cool weather may have put a damper on Thursday night’s inaugural “Summer Nights” festival on Seventh Street but hopefully crowds will pick up as the temperature rises.

The photo above by Seth McConnell shows Kenny Putnam playing his fiddle to a small crowd.

Jeff Carsrud, one of the organizers of the event, told me about 550 people came downtown throughout the evening despite the lack of ideal conditions.

The festival runs each Thursday through the end of August. I hope it makes it that long.

If anyone attended, please, share the good and bad about the festival and how it can be improved.

By Kevin Woster

Republican U.S. House candidate Chris Lien is heading for Alaska and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge next month with a group of GOP House candidates from other states.

He’s also setting up an issue for his campaign against incumbent Democratic Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin.

Lien will push the issue of increased oil exploration and development in North America, and advocate the extraction of more oil in ANWR and other places.

In the process he’ll criticize Herseth Sandlin and the Democratic leadership in the House for failing to adequately advance the development our own oil reserves.

It could be a fairly prominent issue in the campaign, given the price of gas and the probability that pump pain will still be fairly severe - if, presumably, slightly less than it is now - come election time.

By Todd Williams
The topic came up during story conference today: “Are we getting tired of stories focusing on the cost, the projected cost, or how to deal with spiraling costs of gasoline?”

First thing in the morning, every Web site, every radio station, every TV news program — it’s a veritable firestorm. The price goes up, the media reports, the politicians react, the people react but still head to the pump. Meanwhile, prices of everything that isn’t sent through the ether continues to rise as shipping costs prods inflation ever upward.

Is there any relief? Should there be?

Today, the leading gas price story of the day is that the price will top out at $4.15 this summer — so says the government, anyway. Of course, there is the disclaimer that the government tends to be optimistic when it comes to such estimates. Still, even if it holds at $4.15, government officials say it will stay there for months and months.

Yesterday, it was the story that Senate Republicans blocked debate on a bill that would have increased taxes that Big Oil would have to pay. Typical election year stuff, I suppose, except there weren’t many cries of obstructionism that often accompanied similar acts by past legislative bodies. But I digress …

The real question, I suppose, is whether politicians should be involved at all in the free market surge that has propelled oil and gasoline prices to weekly records or will capitalism eventually curb the market at an appropriate level?

I’d try to find the answer myself, but I’ve been to busy sifting through the wires and the multitudinous gas price stories to do that.

By Eric Lochridge

Elli Schwiesow’s entry into the District 32 state Senate race interests me not so much for her ongoing ax-grinding against Stan Adelstein as it does for the subtle trend her candidacy may be advancing.

As social conservatives’ sway in the Republican Party (and politics generally) wanes, it seems they are increasingly going the third-party route.

Earlier this year, there was talk of conservative Christians mounting a third-party challenge if John McCain won the Republican nomination for president. Former Republican Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia, who was quite socially conservative during his tenure, was recently nominated to run for president with the Libertarian Party. And there often is grumbling on the letters-to-the-editor page about the GOP becoming too moderate, with the Constitution Party sometimes offered as an alternative.

It seems to me like all of this points toward a slow withdrawal from the Republican Party in favor of a more socially conservative stance. Could the GOP be sliding toward a politically crippling rift?

By Kevin Woster

On the surface, it didn’t seem to work.

Hillary Clinton made a trip to Kyle on the Pine Ridge, and her husband made four stops on four reservations, including Pine Ridge.

And still, Barack Obama won the Native American vote in South Dakota.

But that doesn’t mean Clinton’s Native outreach failed. I think it played a role - possibly an important one - in her 55-45 primary win here.

First, she kept it relatively close in most of Indian Country, where Obama might - through aggressive voter registration and his widespread appeal to young, in some casees newly registered, voters - have scored a blow-out.

But just as importantly, she reached out to people beyond the reservation and Native people, to non-Natives who nonetheless care deeply about Native American issues. Many of those people are Democrats living in places like Sioux Fall and Aberdeen, and at least some of them have been unhappy with Clinton over her Iraq vote and subsequent comments on terrorists that some considered hawkish.

Clinton’s Native push might have helped mitigate some of those feelings and strengthen her standing with an important block of Democratic voters who were leaning toward Obama. And it certainly showed all South Dakota Democrats that she and - especially - her husband were willing to get out in the sticks.

That always sells in South Dakota.

By Randall Rasmussen

Republican Elli Schwiesow announced Sunday she would run as an independent for the state Senate in District 32. She will face former state Sen. Stan Adelstein and incumbent Sen. Tom Katus in November.

For those who aren’t up to speed on District 32 politics, Adelstein is the R and Katus is the D. Schwiesow, however, said in her news release that there isn’t a dime’s worth of difference, philosophically speaking, between the two. “I offer an alternative, a conservative choice to the voters of District 32,” she said.

For those keeping score, if Schwiesow were to win or split the Republican vote with Adelstein and handing Katus the election, she would be returning the “favor” to Adelstein for endorsing Katus two years ago after he lost to her in the Republican primary.

This sets up what should be the most-watched, and most entertaining, legislative race in West River, if not the entire state.

So, Mount Blogmore, is Elli just being a spoiler to Adelstein’s attempt to return to the Legislature? Or does she have a real shot at getting her own desk in the state Senate?

Is she getting even or playing smart politics?

By Randall Rasmussen

I know this is a political blog, but I’m giving it a rest tonight.

Jim McKay died today. He was the model on which TV sports broadcasters pattern themselves.

We live in an age of 24-hour sports networks and cable channels devoted exclusively to one sport (Golf, Speed, hunting and fishing networks). There was a time when sports on TV was a rarity.

McKay was a pioneer of sports broadcasting when the only sports on television was one college football game on Saturday, one pro football game on Sunday, or one baseball game on Saturday. He hosted “ABC’s Wide World of Sports” on Saturdays and introduced America to an eclectic mix of the familiar and unusual. McKay made off-beat sports like cliff diving in Mexico or barrel-jumping ice skaters in New York the reason I tuned into the program. Sure, you got your fix of regular sports like basketball, track, skiing and the like. But it was the occasionally weird sports around the world that made “Wide World of Sports” such a treat to watch. Plus there was all those exotic locations that one rarely got to see on television.

McKay made sports broadcasting akin to a poetry reading. Who can forget McKay’s introduction: “From the thrill of victory to the agony of defeat” with the clip of the ski jumper going head-first off the side of the ramp.

We remember McKay’s broadcast of the 1972 Munich Olympics when Arab terrorists kidnapped and killed the Israeli athletes. His calm reporting of the madness that transpired was unforgettable.

But I remember Jim McKay most for making televised sports a habit I indulge in to this day.

By Kevin Woster

For two long, difficult years, Hillary and I have persevered.

We have crossed the country (well, she more than I), reached out to millions, (or in my case, several), found the soul of America in places like Poughkeepsie, Kankanee and Kyle (I actually made it there) and made a spiritual connection on the campaign trail rivaled only by the one I forged with Rita Braver (see below).

We have, on occasion, even slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the … wait, I’ve already used that one in an earlier thread. Never mind.

Anyway, it’s time, finally, to say it’s over.

Hillary and I have lost. Obama and Denise have won.

Dinner’s on me, since Hillary is about $20 million in debt.

I know, I know, there’s always the possibility that she will change her mind before her official concession and Obama endorsement. And a part of me whispers, “But, what if….”

Oh, how my heart flutters at the thought. And, oh, how sweet it would be for my fragile checking account.

But, alas, it is time to concede, and belly up to the pasta bar at that there fancy EYE-talian place up the street.

It’s over. I give. Let’s eat.

By Randall Rasmussen

She’s not going away.

That was my initial reaction as I watched Hillary Clinton’s supposed concession speech last night. There was no concession in it.

Hillary reiterated the argument for her own candidacy that she has been making all through her campaign through South Dakota and Montana – she won the popular vote over Barack Obama, she won the key electoral states from Obama that are needed to win the presidency, and she’s a better candidate against Republican John McCain than Obama.

What does she want by staying in it until the Democratic National Convention in August? The vice presidency? A significant say on writing the party’s platform? A Cabinet post?

Maybe. The Clintons also believe Hillary’s been unfairly treated by the media and by Obama’s supporters. Bill Clinton said so several times in South Dakota. They’re mad and they’re not going to quit now.

I think she wants what she’s been seeking all along – the Democratic Party’s nomination for president.

She knows this is her only shot at running for president in her lifetime. She knows that there is a lot of time between now and August. She knows the superdelegates can change their minds between now and Denver. Anything is possible.

All she has to do is convince the supers that Obama can’t win and she can. It’s not over ‘til it’s over.