Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Every Picture Tells a Story, Don't It

Mark Dayton apparently doesn't like it when people with cameras are trailing him:

DFL gubernatorial hopeful Mark Dayton said Monday that GOP operatives harassed him at an outdoors expo over the weekend and prevented him from talking to Minnesota voters.

By following him at close range with inexpensive Flip cameras, Dayton said the video trackers "made it impossible for me to conduct normal campaign activities."

Republicans say that the staffers they hired to track and record Dayton were polite and that Dayton overreacted to a time-worn tactic that political parties use to keep tabs on rivals.
Two quick observations:
  • Ever since the "macaca" incident that sunk the political career of George Allen, it's pretty much been a given that political operatives would follow candidates looking for similar slipups. Dayton knows that, of course. And given the amount of grainy footage of Emmer we see on political ads, it's pretty clear that his campaign knows how to use a flip camera.
  • If Dayton is camera shy, running for governor seems like a strange thing to do, doncha think? He might consider a career with a less, ahem, public profile. Private citizen, for example. Just sayin'.

1 comment:

Night Writer said...

"made it impossible for me to conduct normal campaign activities."

You mean, like lying?