With the elections in Louisiana now over, the 2008 election is finally over, and MyDD Blog Talk Radio will be on the air live to recap the year. The call-in number for the show is (646) 652-2585. You can also chime in via AIM to "MyDDdotCOM". If you do not use AIM, you can send an email under the subject line "MyDD Blog Talk Radio" to jonathan-at-mydd-dot-com. Leave your questions or thoughts below and listen live!

Six years ago today Minnesota, the Democratic Party, and the United States of America lost the great senator Paul Wellstone. Last year, the Senate Democrats made a video tribute to Wellstone (above), and its watching again today.

Ezra Klein wrote a beautiful piece entitled "Remembering Paul Wellstone" where he closed by saying:

It's easier to be a liberal today, to be a progressive, to be proud. But there was a time when it wasn't. When liberalism in defense of peace was mocked, and moderation in service of imperialism was praised. In those days, it was hard to be a liberal. It must have been hard to be Paul Wellstone. He never showed it, though. He liked to quote Marcia Timmel. "I'm so small and the darkness is so great," she said. "We must light a candle," Wellstone would reply. He was ours. Would that he was here to enjoy the dawn.

Wellstone's absence has been palpable these last six years and last year I wrote:

I can't imagine how much less lonely the last five years would have been with Paul Wellstone in the US Senate. To have won in 2002, to have shown the world and the Democratic Party that an anti-war candidate could win without being scared might have shown us a different strategy in 2004. To have had him standing by Howard Dean when he spoke Wellstone's phrase "I represent the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party" might have lead us out the wilderness sooner. But in his absence we can only hope to honor his memory by living up to it.

In a fair world, today we'd be watching Paul Wellstone head towards his fourth term in the U.S. Senate. But today we can honor his memory by helping Al Franken carry on his proud legacy as Minnesota's next Senator, by becoming a part of the grassroots movement for change spreading across the country, and by always remembering his words which seem so fortuitous now, "The only way to change is to vote."

Update: We'll actually be kicking things off at 8:30pm tonight. Be sure and call in to join us at 656-652-2585.

Tonight marks the eagerly anticipated return of MyDD Blog Talk Radio at 8pm eastern time. Call in and join us at 646-652-2585, leave a comment in the thread, email jonathan AT mydd DOT com, or send an instant message to MyDDdotcom.

WMUR is streaming live coverage from NH. MSNBC has good coverage:

A man took an unknown number of people hostage at a New Hampshire campaign office for Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton, police said Friday.

The man claimed to have a bomb strapped to him when he walked into the office in Rochester, WHDH-TV reported.

Police said they believe two hostages were being held and that the man had released an adult and a child.

Update [2007-11-30 14:23:52 by Todd Beeton]: Update from WMUR:

Officials with the campaign confirmed that there were two workers taken hostage in the office on 28 North Main St.. A woman and her baby told workers at a neighboring business that she was released by the hostage-taker.

"A young woman with a 6-month or 8-month-old infant came rushing into the store just in tears, and she said, 'You need to call 911. A man has just walked into the Clinton office, opened his coat and showed us a bomb strapped to his chest with duct tape,'" witness Lettie Tzizik said.

There are several police officers positioned across the street from the office, crouched down behind cruisers with guns drawn, according to a reported at the scene.

"I walked out and I immediately started running, and I saw that the road was blocked off. They told me run and keep going," said Cassandra Hamilton, who works in an office adjacent to the building.

Update [2007-11-30 14:44:33 by Todd Beeton]:WMUR is reporting that the man is demanding to speak with Senator Clinton, although they can't confirm it.

Update [2007-11-30 15:4:2 by Todd Beeton]:WMUR: SWAT team in touch with the hostage-taker. They're not going in but will try to get a phone in to him.

Update [2007-11-30 15:6:23 by Todd Beeton]: WMUR: One of the hostages was just let go.

Update [2007-11-30 15:10:37 by Todd Beeton]:WMUR: Make that both of the hostages have been released.

Update [2007-11-30 15:43:41 by Todd Beeton]:Press conference in 5 minutes. WMUR is now saying there may be more hostages inside.

Update [2007-11-30 16:43:59 by Todd Beeton]:Press conference finally going on now. "Situation is still fluid." They're revealing nothing.

The 2007 DNC Fall Meeting is taking place all weekend in Tyson's Corner in Virginia. The DNC is doing a great job with bloggers, like Kate Sheppard from the Prospect who is next to me, pictures on flickr, and streaming the video live at Democrats.org.

As soon as the debate wraps up, MyDD Blog Talk Radio will be on the air live to talk shop about the debate. The call-in number for the show is (646) 652-2585. You can also chime in via AIM to "MyDDdotCOM". If you do not use AIM, you can send an email under the subject line "MyDD Blog Talk Radio" to jonathan-at-mydd-dot-com. Leave your questions or thoughts below and listen live!

Update [2007-11-15 22:23:59 by Jonathan Singer]: Feel free to use this as post-debate thread...

Update [2007-11-15 22:41:57 by Todd Beeton]: Perhaps the moment of the debate (h/t Think Progress.)

Said Christopher Jackson, a Marine who served three tours of duty in Iraq:

I feel that if we continue on the path we’re at, that’s where we’re going to end up — in Iran. And that’s not what our troops need. Our troops need to come home now.

Tom Udall is in the NM Senate race and in to win! From the AP:

NM Rep. Tom Udall to Run for Senate

By DEBORAH BAKER - 43 minutes ago

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) -- Democratic Rep. Tom Udall who will run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Pete Domenici, an aide to the congressman said Saturday.

"He's definitely running," Tom Nagle, Udall's chief of staff, told The Associated Press.

Udall will formally announce his decision in New Mexico during Congress's Thanksgiving recess, Nagle said.

[. . .]

Udall had said he planned to stay in the House, where he is a member of the powerful Appropriations Committee. But he reconsidered after a "groundswell" of encouragement from New Mexicans, Nagle said.

"He thinks it's too important not to run for the Senate," Nagle said. "A lot of the good things we've been able to do (in the House) don't go anywhere in the Senate."

Massive props to everyone who helped with the Draft Udall movement! Now comes the hard work of electing Tom Udall to the US Senate to fulfill our mantra of MORE AND BETTER UDALLS!

Update [2007-11-10 19:42:46 by Jonathan Singer]: Internal polling released by the Udall campaign confirms what we've seen in public polling: New Mexicans want Tom Udall to be their next Senator.

Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin & Associates (D), 10/23-27, 500 GE LVs (MoE +/- 4.3%), 439 Dem primary LVs (MoE +/- 4.6%)

General Election

R/D	Udall	Chavez
Wilson	36/52	43/47
Pearce	33/50	44/40

Democratic Primary

Udall 50
Chavez 30
Wiviott 2
Undecided 17

Looking at the internal numbers from the poll, the strongly progressive Udall performs evven better among moderate voters than he does overall, leading Wilson 70 percent to 20 percent among this group and leading Pearce 65 percent to 24 percent among it. (Note that the margin of error for subsamples is higher than the overall number.)

And looking at the overall numbers, they run similar to public polling. In the head-to-head between Udall and Wilson, the Democrat leads by 16 points in the FMMA poll, as compared with 17 points in a Research 2000 poll and 18 points in a SurveyUSA poll. Similarly, Udall's 17-point lead over Pearce is not too dissimilar from his 17-point lead in the R2k poll or his 18-point lead in the SUSA poll. So one need not necessarily write off this survey simply because it was commissioned by the Udall campaign.

Yesterday was the 5th anniversary of the tragic death of Paul Wellstone, his wife, daughter, and the others that perished on that plane. The Senate Democrats prepared a moving tribute video, which you can see above (video or YouTube). I'm not going to lie, I teared up a little bit just watching it.

If you missed it yesterday, there were a few wonderful tribute pieces to Wellstone in the blogosphere. Chris Bowers wrote a piece entitled "Paul Wellstone Was His Brother's and Sister's Keeper":

Wellstone had generated the energy of what many, myself included, often call the contemporary progressive movement before it had really coalesced on a national level or in many different localities. And he earned this energy, this support for his campaign, because he stood with his allies. He didn't throw the netroots, liberals, immigrants, the LGBT community, unions or other progressive constituencies under the bus in order to win. He stood with them. He kept his promises to them. He didn't use them as foils or strawmen to highlight his own centrist or difference with the American left. He stood with his allies. He was his brother's and his sister's keeper.

At the Minnesota Monitor, Eric Black, wrote the haunting "Paul Wellstone Spoke to Me from the Grave":

To the limited degree that I allowed myself to feel admiration for anyone about whom I wrote, I admired Wellstone as a conviction politician who seemed, more often than most, to vote his conscience rather than seek political safety. I never expressed this to him privately, and now I can't.

And Ezra Klein's weekly American Prospect column to write what I think captured his loss and its continuing echo so profoundly. "Remembering Paul Wellstone":

In retrospect, it was, in no small part his kindness, evident generosity of spirit, and commitment to public life, that made me start thinking differently about politics. My protective teenage cynicism was no match for his effortless conviction. He robbed me of my excuse for apathy.

Wellstone's populism was not an affectation, or a political posture. It was laced into the fabric of his personality. It's what made him different than other politicians. His measuring stick was not the poll numbers, not the editorial pages, not the political prognosticators, not the Sunday shows -- it was the farmers, the students, the seniors, the people. His fealty to them explains his frequent lonesomeness in the Senate. When the people are your judges, you can stand against the Iraq War in an election year, you can lose votes 99-1. You can fail to pass legislation, because you know the compromise would fail your constituents. "Politics is not about power," he would say. "Politics is not about money. Politics is not about winning for the sake of winning. Politics is about the improvement of people's lives. It's about advancing the cause of peace and justice in our country and the world. Politics is about doing well for the people."

Because of this, Wellstone had an immunity to the political trends that few politicians exhibit.
[. . .]
That they were politically inconvenient never deterred him. "If we don't fight hard enough for the things we stand for," he said, "at some point we have to recognize that we don't really stand for them."

I was a politically unaware freshman in college the day that Paul Wellstone died. I'll never forget being shocked by how one man's loss affect so many so profoundly. But Wellstone's true legacy, lives on in his supporters, like the wonderful people at Wellstone Action (in fact my Camp Wellstone campaign manual was loaned to a certain MyDD blogger last year).

I can't imagine how much less lonely the last five years would have been with Paul Wellstone in the US Senate. To have won in 2002, to have shown the world and the Democratic Party that an anti-war candidate could win without being scared might have shown us a different strategy in 2004. To have had him standing by Howard Dean when he spoke Wellstone's phrase "I represent the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party" might have lead us out the wilderness sooner. But in his absence we can only hope to honor his memory by living up to it.