THE HOTLINE

Several items really keep my attention as campaign season heats up. One is the way campaigns conduct themselves, two is the way staffers display the true nature of their staff (typically), and the third is how the race for dollars affects the statements candidates make and the way candidates speak effect campaign dollars. No where is this more apparent than in the Talent vs. McCaskill contest. Watch the two latest developments and the way it will affect campaign dollars. First, Claire has absolutely decided that she cannot compete for campaign donations from the Ag business community. She is just plain wrong on too many of their issues. Their issues, by the way, are the one’s that play the best in rural Missouri. So what does she do? She attacks them and tries to pivot on the issue to make a populist stand. Not a bad idea, except that she doesn’t understand the dynamic. She is trying to bracket the Ag community as a special interest and Ross Perot her way to a plurality win in the “who do you trust to protect rural interests” question. The problem is that during the pivot she picks up the support of people who are abhorred in rural Missouri. The two latest examples, corporate farming and payday lenders. Politician after politician has tried to make hay (pun intended) out of attacking corporate farms. The problem is the definition of corporate. This is where Claire shows her weakness. She goes to a farm of 1,800 acres to discuss corporate farming interests. The rules that she has endorsed, and the farm bill that she wants to promote, would do more harm for rural interests than she can even imagine. A piece of legislation is an axe, not a scalpel. You cannot legislate to one form of agriculture and not another. You cannot impose more regulation and expect it to not affect small farmers as well. The difference is that the large farm industry will pay to adapt while the small farmers are hung with the bill while not having the capital to change their procedures. She does not understand this concept. Watch for the Sierra Club, the Farmers Union, Prairie Fire and a whole host of other extreme groups come running to Claire’s aid. This adds no votes to her rural count and actually brackets her as anti-farming. More harm then good.

Meanwhile, Senator Jim Talent has taken on the PayDay lending industry. This industry preys on the neediest among us and the Senator is taking them head on, http://www.stjoenews-press.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=81566&SectionID=81&SubSectionID=&S=1. You can bet that Claire will go running to that industry, claim that Talent is trying to run them out of business, and take their blood money. The legislation that is pending in Congress would make the simple change to restrict the amount of interest and rollovers that PayDay Lenders can charge our military men and women. No one can make the claim that this legislation is anything but pro-consumer, pro-military and good for America. Bet your bottom dollar that Claire will be at the PayDay trough raking in the dough. This is just too much fun.