DFL: Minnesota is fine; Walz is fine

Friday night, the Almanac roundtable debated Friday's noon debate between beleaguered Tim Walz and Dr. Scott Jensen. DFL analyst Abou Amara stuck to the DFL's talking points that Minnesota is fine under Gov. Tim Walz's leadership. Amara, like Gov. Walz, said that Dr. Jensen has a dark vision of Minnesota.

The first flashpoint in the debate came when Gov. Walz accused Dr. Jensen of quitting the Minnesota legislature. Dr. Jensen replied that he left because his wife needed extensive medical care. Then Dr. Jensen replied that Gov. Walz quit the National Guard, a reference to the fact that Gov. Walz left the National Guard instead of deploying to Iraq.

Amara insists that middle-aged women are a major part of suburban women. Further, he insists that these women will tip the election to Walz. That's possible but unknown at this point. Andy Brehm, representing the Republicans, stated that suburban voters care about crime, inflation and education, too. In fact, Brehm said that more voters worry about those issues than they worry about abortion.

Democrats, especially the Alliance for a Better Minnesota, literally spent millions of dollars on ads telling Minnesota's voters that Scott Jensen wants to ban abortion with no exceptions. The thing is that they spent most of that money in mid-summer when people were taking vacations and not paying attention to the campaigns. They've continued spending on those ads but GOP-aligned groups have hit the DFL hard on the issue of crime.

Here's the Roundtable debate between Brehm and Amara:

Here's the MPR debate:

Finally, here's one of the outside group's ads on crime and Walz's failed leadership:

That ad about the Floyd riots is devastating to thinking people. If that doesn't persuade you to vote for Scott Jensen, then you're a mindless Democrat.

It's essential to understand that it's possible to criticize Tim Walz's failed leadership without criticizing Minnesota itself. Further, it's important to know that Dr. Jensen has published multiple 10-point plans to make Minnesota safer and more prosperous. Tim Walz just tells voters that everything is fine. Anyone that's been a suburban crime victim or who's had their children locked out of school for months on end knows that Minnesota must do better than what it's done under Gov. Walz's failed leadership.