GOP blasts Obama on eve of MN visit
Posted: Monday, June 02, 2008 6:45 PM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
Republicans
From NBC's Caroline Gransee and Katie Mulhall
RNC chairman Mike Duncan and Minnesota GOP chair Ron Carey held a conference call with reporters this afternoon to discuss Obama's visit to the state tomorrow -- as well as to argue that McCain will be able to put the state in the GOP column for the first time since 1972.
On the call, the chairmen repeatedly sought to label Obama as too liberal and out of touch with the state, with Carey calling him “the most liberal candidate to run for president of the United States, certainly in my lifetime." They also argued that once Minnesotans see the “real Barack Obama ... not the PR machine Barack Obama” -- and contrast this with McCain -- the state will be winnable for them. They added that Obama lacks judgment, while McCain offers “solutions to the world."
Carey asserted that Minnesota is “certainly within our reach, despite what some polling might say right now," and that the state has been trending Republican in recent years (although Democrats trounced Republicans in the open Senate race in 2006). Carey also noted that Minnesota has gone from being the only state to vote for Walter Mondale in 1984 to coming within 90,000 votes of giving its electoral votes to George W. Bush in 2000, and again in 2004.
