President Klobuchar

No, don't laugh. The Star Tribune provides a look at the trial balloon:

Less than two years after two other Minnesotans, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, flamed out in the 2011-12 GOP Iowa caucus campaign, Klobuchar became the first of the Democratic presidential “possibles” to touch down in Iowa’s “fields of opportunities.”

Klobuchar, 53, barely into her second six-year term, is stepping out on the national stage with weekend TV interview appearances and, more recently, speeches to Democratic activists in Ohio, North and South Dakota, Wisconsin and Indiana. She invoked a Sarah Palin-like line to describe why she came south.

“I can see Iowa from my porch,” Klobuchar likes to say.

I should probably mention that Klobuchar was actually quoting Tina Fey, but then again I suppose with the proper NSA clearances Klobuchar probably can see Iowa from her porch, although she might not want to bring that matter up with Sen. Leahy in the cloakroom.

In the pre-2008 world, the notion that someone like Amy Klobuchar, whose greatest legislative achievement concerns improperly installed pool drains, would be worthy of consideration as a presidential candidate would have been ludicrous. But five years on, we have elected and re-elected Barack Obama, so why would anyone assume it couldn't be possible? I suspect there aren't too many rodeo clowns who would wear an Amy Klobuchar mask, either, so this might just have a chance to work, especially if Hillary Clinton decides that she doesn't really want this after all. The Dems are going to be looking at someone from the distaff side and it's not exactly like the Democrats have a deep bench -- I mean, what would be the alternative? Martin O'Malley?

Klobuchar was at an event called the "North Iowa Democrats Wing Ding," which takes place in the same ballroom where Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper performed their final concert before the tragic 1959 plane crash that claimed their lives. Later, the omnipresent Larry Jacobs* had this to say:

Larry Jacobs, political science professor at the University of Minnesota, sees Klobuchar’s visit as a low-risk, low-cost political play that could help in a number of ways.

“I think what she’s doing is kind of getting her feet wet in a presidential bid, floating her name for the vice presidential sweepstakes, and boosting her credentials for Senate leadership,” he said. “All it is costing her is a plane ticket.”

Wrong comparison there, Larry.

*One of the four Officially Approved Academic Pundits in the Twin Cities, alongside Dave Schultz of Hamline, Steven Schier of Carleton and Kathryn Pearson, also of the U, who was unavailable for this article because she was too busy waxing rhapsodic about Klobuchar on KARE last night.