The President's last minute campaign stops don't provide a big boost according to the Saint Paul Pioneer Press.

"Bush's 15-state blitz in the final six days of the campaign caps a three-week stretch in which he has barnstormed the country. History suggests it's a largely empty exercise."

"Presidential visits to rallies for other candidates excite the party's core supporters, but they also energize the opposition. Any bump up in polls that a president can produce for his party's local candidate tends to be short-lived."

"If Bush hoped his message would reach beyond the auditorium — and all these rallies are produced as much for television as for the audience present — he didn't fare very well. His visit was buried on the evening newscasts of the three network affiliates in the Twin Cities, where more than half the state's population lives. The Bush story was 10th on the 10 p.m. newscast of CBS affiliate WCCO, after stories about such subjects as the arrest of former baseball player Kirby Puckett and an Air Force plane crash in California."

Thanks to Hamster for leading us to the article.

If you are thinking of voting for an incumbant, we recommend you check his or her voting record.

Daily Kos has the latest batch of Zogby polls and it shows Tom Strickland with 53 of the vote to Wayne Allard's 44 in the Colorado Senate race.

Strickland can win, so please, go to the polls Tuesday and cast your vote for him.

The official Mondale for Senate website is up and running.

Political Wire reports today that Third Party Candidates May Tip Balance In Senate. The Strickland/Allard race in Colorado is one that could be affected. The Wire quotes the Wall Street Journal as reporting:

"The development is most notable in Colorado and Missouri." In Colorado, Rick Stanley is running as a Libertarian and "pulling crucial votes away from incumbent Sen. Wayne Allard, a Republican." In Missouri, Daniel Romano is running as a Green and "is vying for liberal votes with Democratic Sen. Jean Carnahan." Recent polls "show the races in both states are very tight, so the ebb and flow of a few thousand votes could be pivotal -- with national implications, since Democrats are defending a one-seat majority in the Senate and contests in five states are too close to call."

Not only has former Vice President Walter Mondale officially been named as the replacement candidate for Paul Wellstone in the Minnesota senate race, but a poll published Wednesday shows Mondale with an 8 point lead over Norman Coleman, the Republican candidate "handpicked by the White House."

We loved Scoobie Davis' post Republican Sexual Hypocrisy which has a transcript of his conversation with Sean Hannity resulting from Scoobie's call-in to Hannity's radio show.

We agree with Scoobie that Newt Gingrich's serial wife-dumping was worse than Bill Clinton's sexual escapades. In 1981, Newt dumped his first wife, Jackie Battley, for Marianne, wife number 2, while Jackie was in the hospital undergoing cancer treatment. Marianne and Newt divorced in December, 1999 after Marianne found out about Newt's long-running affair with Callista Bisek, his one-time congressional aide. Gingrich asked Marianne for the divorce by phoning her on Mother's Day, 1999. [Source: New York Post, July 18, 2000, Newt's Ex Wife Aiming to Pen Book by Bill Sanderson, available on lexis].

Newt (57) and Callista (34) were married in a private ceremony in a hotel courtyard in Alexandria, Va. in August, 2000. Here's a fuller description, from a commentary by Doug Sanders of the Cato Institute published by the Copely News Service on August 21, 2000:

"Gingrich's misbehavior goes back years. Fidelity was apparently never his strong point. After marrying his high school math teacher, Jacqueline Battley, even he admits: ''In the 1970s, things happened.''

"As a congressional candidate, he conducted an affair in 1977, a year before enlisting Jackie to write a letter attacking his opponent for planning to leave her family in the district: ''When elected, Newt will keep his family together,'' declared one unintentionally hilarious campaign ad. Gingrich ended his 19-year marriage shortly after his victory."

"He famously visited Jackie in the hospital where she was recovering from surgery for uterine cancer to discuss details of the divorce. He later resisted paying alimony and child support for his two daughters, causing a church to take up a collection. For all of his talk of religious faith and the importance of God, Gingrich left his congregation over the pastor's criticism of his divorce."

"Soon thereafter, Gingrich married Marianne Ginther, whom he had previously met at a political fund-raiser. He called her ''the woman I love'' and ''my best friend and closest adviser'' in his first speech as House speaker, in January 1995... Yet, his relationship with Bisek, a House employee, apparently extended back to 1993 while he was talking of reforming the corrupt welfare state and promoting society's moral regeneration. Rumors of his relationship with Bisek, more than 20 years his junior, did not stop him from writing his political testament, in which he criticized sex outside of marriage, promoted traditional family life and opined that ''any male who doesn't support his children is a bum.''

"In May 1999, however, Gingrich called Marianne at her mother's home. After wishing the 84-year-old matriarch happy birthday, he told Marianne that he wanted a divorce."

And from "Newt's a Beaut" by Mickey Porter published in the July 25, 2000 edition of the Akron Beacon Journal:

"Gingrich's most recent ex-wife says he ditched her eight months after finding out she had multiple sclerosis. Marianne Gingrich, 48, shopping a book proposal "both personal and political" about how women are treated in D.C., says the ex-speaker of the House told her on Mother's Day 1999 that he wanted a divorce, after learning she had a neurological condition that could lead to MS. In 1981, the former congressman told his other ex-wife, Jackie Battley, that he was dumping her, after she had been hospitalized with cancer. Newt, 57, will wed ex-congressional aide Callista Bisek, 34 -- with whom he had an affair while still married to Marianne -- on Aug. 18. "

(Due to spammers, comments have been disabled on this post.)

The Minneapolis Star Tribune has built a comprehensive web page on the death of Paul Wellstone. It has everything, go take a look, it's pretty impressive.

Democratic Party officials are saying that Walter Mondale will step in and run for Sen. Paul Wellstone's senate seat.

My DD has the latest on the top 10 senate races that are still in play.

I updated Eric Alterman's Altercation today with a long post on Sen. Paul Wellstone called "Never Afraid to Stand Alone."

I saved my personal feelings for TalkLeft.

The loss was very difficult for me as I was in Minneapolis/Saint Paul Friday. At 1:00 p.m. I was at the old Commodore Hotel in Saint Paul speaking at a continuing legal education conference for Minnesota criminal defense lawyers. My topic was fighting for the unpopular defendant in the Post-9/11 world. I was half-way through when someone entered the room and took a seat in the back right section. I became of aware of a little buzz in the room and saw that the audience's attention had shifted from me at the front to that spot in the back. I wondered what was up and asked if something was wrong. A woman said, "Senator Wellstone and his wife and daughter and campaign staff were just killed in a small plane crash. He was on his way to a funeral."

I can say it was truly my worst moment in public speaking. After "Oh my God" (the triteness of which was magnified tenfold by my lavalier mike) I simply said "Do you want to stop?" and of course they did. After that there was stunned silence among the group, followed by crying and some sobbing.

We all left the room and gathered around the television. The hotel opened the bar. The rest of the day's conference was cancelled for these Minnesota lawyers, many of them sole practitioners and public defenders. Generally, although there are exceptions, criminal defense lawyers are a liberal group, more liberal than 99 out of 100 mainstream politicians. A senator like Paul Wellstone is a true hero to us and his loss is devastating. He was the most liberal person in the Senate, and there is no one who stands in his shoes to replace him. I am very sorry.

There is a lot of uncertainty about the Minnesota ballot. Right now, Senator Paul Wellstone is off the ballot but the Democratic Farm Labor Party may name a replacement candidate within the next seven days. As of Friday evening "party leaders remained silent about what they will do, leaving open the possibility of a posthumous Wellstone candidacy."

Minn. Attorney General Mike Hatch said Minnesota law has no provision allowing for the election of a deceased candidate. John Wodele, spokesman for Gov. Jesse Ventura, said the attorney general's interpretation of Minnesota's complex election law may not be accurate.

"Wodele said the governor's lawyers are reviewing different sections of law from the ones cited by Hatch. "However, we are far from any conclusion and will continue to do due diligence on the law," Wodele said."

Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer, a Republican who also serves as the state's chief election administrator, said the party could put Wellstone's name back on the ballot.

Other possible replacement candidates that may be considered are: "Wellstone's son, David, Democratic U.S. Reps. Martin Sabo and James Oberstar, Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page, former Secretary of State Joan Growe, former DFL gubernatorial candidate Mike Freeman, former U.S. Senate candidates Rebecca Yanisch and Mike Ciresi, former state Attorney General Hubert Humphrey III, State Auditor Judi Dutcher and [Attorney General Mike] Hatch."