Could blaze orange turn key states red or blue?

[Pezhead]

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=524940&catid=2

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Forget spring, summer, fall and winter. In Minnesota, the seasons go by fishing, boating, hunting and snowmobiling.

Outdoors passions run so strong that last year lawmakers considered moving the fishing opener to spare anglers the dilemma of having to choose between hitting the lake and marking Mother's Day. It explains why presidential hopefuls John McCain and Barack Obama are targeting hook-and-bullet voters -- a bloc expected to turn out in especially high numbers because of a state ballot question on natural resource financing.

Beyond Minnesota, the campaigns are mobilizing blaze-orange brigades in battleground states including Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin. They're making their cases at game fairs, shooting ranges and hunting camps.

With a fresh poll showing a deadlocked race in Minnesota, McCain was bringing his Republican campaign back to the state Friday along with his new weapon: moose-hunting running mate Sarah Palin. McCain's selection of the Alaska governor has fired up some outdoors enthusiasts.

"She's probably the most pro-hunting and pro-gun candidate that we've ever had," said dentist Don McMillan, a member of Minnesota's Sportsmen for McCain. "She hunts. She fishes. She snowmobiles. She's an outdoors person. Outdoors people can relate to someone like that."

Both candidates touched on their recreational backgrounds in interviews with Field & Stream magazine published Wednesday. Obama said he spearfished as a child in Hawaii but hasn't gone hunting or fishing in Illinois. McCain said he fishes on his property in northern Arizona but doesn't own a gun.

In Minnesota, McCain and Palin were due to hold an airport rally in Anoka County and share the stage with Ron Schara, host of the popular weekly outdoors show, "Minnesota Bound."

Behind the scenes, the McCain campaign has built a presence at weekend gun shows, organized within snowmobile clubs and tailored phone banks to put pro-McCain sportsmen in touch with those who are undecided.

McCain is hoping to make inroads in northeastern Minnesota's St. Louis County, a place of towering pines and ample lakes where President Bush lost to Democrat John Kerry by 37,000 votes in 2004.

Earlier this week, Obama's campaign used the same region for its rollout of a sportsmen network, with a pledge to protect hunters' gun rights, expand and restore habitat for hunting and fishing, and enhance programs that teach youth about outdoors activities.

His campaign is working to repel a National Rifle Association push to portray Obama as an enemy of the Second Amendment and to get past the candidate's inartful statement during the primaries about the tendency of small-town Americans to "cling to guns or religion."

Radio ads that Obama is running in several key states feature a former NFL player telling listeners that "Barack Obama and John McCain will both make sure we can keep our guns."

In northern Minnesota, computer technician Michael Jarve said he'll go door-to-door if needed to get that message out, too.

"Tell me where Senator Obama says `I want stricter controls on who can hunt and when' or 'I want to ban shotguns and rifles,"' said Jarve, a member of Obama's Minnesota sportsmen chapter. "Where has he said that? He hasn't."

Jarve, 27, has been a hunter since accompanying his father on a partridge hunt when he was 3. He concedes that the gun vote has traditionally been a Republican stronghold, but thinks the economy and Iraq war will ultimately drive voters' decisions this year.

Nationally, McCain held a 36 percentage point lead over Obama among gun owners in an AP-Yahoo News poll conducted Sept. 5-15. Among those who don't own guns, Obama was up 45 percent to 41 percent, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Four in 10 gun owners polled said the Palin pick made them more likely to support the McCain ticket, a much higher rate than among those who don't have firearms.

One wildcard in Minnesota is a constitutional amendment that should draw more outdoors-minded voters to the polls. It would establish a huge pot of money dedicated for habitat restoration, water cleanup and heritage programs. It has a catch that's causing discomfort among top Republicans -- the money would be generated by increasing the state sales tax.

Dan Hofrenning, a political scholar at St. Olaf College in Northfield, said there's no doubt that outdoors matters are serious business in the state. The big question, he said, is whether they'll trump other voter concerns.

"Minnesota is a state with 10,000 lakes and lots of forests and plenty of people who hunt and fish. Does it beat bread and butter issues like peace and prosperity? Probably not," he said. "But in a close election, you're looking for anything."


(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

I did it right this time.

[alsec]

I would have never believed St. Louis County was so left, but then Wisconsin and Minnesota both amaze me
by leaning as left as they do. Anyone who thinks the "O" man is not a threat to the future possession of firearms is living under a rock.
I often wonder how quickly things will change when the 55+ age group drops from the hunting/fishing rolls. I do not think we can count on the
next generation considering the declining numbers of hunters and people with a connection to rural America. Hunting will become a hobby of the elite who can afford to have private preserves and afford the taxes which will be imposed as a means to keep guns from the common folk. Hunting on public land will be made illegal with the increasing throngs of PETA/Vegan people demanding it. The "O" man is far removed from understanding hunting or possession of firearms for home and self protection and I do not see that changing.

[nyffman]

But, he beleives in the 2nd amendment. He even told his followers to spread the message of hope that he beleives in the 2nd amendment.

From a recent AP story:

In Elko, Obama tried to anticipate his critics and called on the crowd of about 1,500 to sharpen their elbows, too.

"I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors. I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face," he said.

"And if they tell you that, 'Well, we're not sure where he stands on guns.' I want you to say, 'He believes in the Second Amendment.' If they tell you, 'Well, he's going to raise your taxes,' you say, 'No, he's not, he's going lower them.' You are my ambassadors. You guys are the ones who can make the case."

I found it here.

[Pezhead]

Wow, he's going to provide everyhting for almost everyone.

[R.E.T.]

So he wants people to go out and lie like he does. He is the most anti-gun person to ever run for president.

[Jackpine Savage]

I would have never believed St. Louis County was so left, but then Wisconsin and Minnesota both amaze me
by leaning as left as they do.

Its them darn Finns:

"Not all Finns were radicals, of course. Some were deeply religious and socially conservative - the so-called White Finns. But it was the radical or Red Finns who drew the most attention. Finnish immigrants were the first in the nation to found a foreign-language group of the American Socialist Party. Finntown in Virginia had a three-story brick building known as the Socialist Opera. By one estimate, a third of the Finns on the Iron Range in 1913 were socialists. In the 1930s, 40 percent of the total membership of the American communist party nationwide came from one small immigrant group - the Finns. Gus Hall, the longtime head of the American Communist party, came from a Finnish farmstead on the Iron Range. Andy Johnson, the boy whose family took the train to Aurora and homesteaded in the wilderness, grew up to be a well known local communist. "

http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/f ... npoor2.htm

[Ironbear]

There is something I realized in the last election.

After seeing a number of historically anti-gun politicians doing photo-op hunts, and pro-2nd sound bites, I began wondering about something. By appearing pro-gun, they were obviously trying to attract pro-gun voters; but wouldn't this also alienate them from the anti-gun voters? Right? If you support something, you lose the people who oppose it! However, they did it, so they didn't think it would hurt them. Then it hit me! The only answer that made any sense! Their expectation was, that the posing and sound bites would convince the pro-gunners of their pro-gunness; but that the anti-gunners would understand that this was a necessary deception, and not believe what they said and did! There it was. The only explanation that fit! They believed gun owners to be dumb, gullible hicks who could be easily duped; and their anti-gun supporters to be intelligent, sophisticated and willing to overlook a little lying to get what they wanted...

[Tutmos]

I just wish I could afford that Barrett BMG before the right to purchase any new guns is removed around mid January.

[R.E.T.]

There is something I realized in the last election.

After seeing a number of historically anti-gun politicians doing photo-op hunts, and pro-2nd sound bites, I began wondering about something. By appearing pro-gun, they were obviously trying to attract pro-gun voters; but wouldn't this also alienate them from the anti-gun voters? Right? If you support something, you lose the people who oppose it! However, they did it, so they didn't think it would hurt them. Then it hit me! The only answer that made any sense! Their expectation was, that the posing and sound bites would convince the pro-gunners of their pro-gunness; but that the anti-gunners would understand that this was a necessary deception, and not believe what they said and did! There it was. The only explanation that fit! They believed gun owners to be dumb, gullible hicks who could be easily duped; and their anti-gun supporters to be intelligent, sophisticated and willing to overlook a little lying to get what they wanted...

This has been Hillerys mo while a senator. Talk in a way to seem like a moderate, vote as usual. The groups that support her do what the average citizen does not. That is check the voting record. If she started to vote like she talks, they would be all over her.