Whoa there MTed, you are WAY overstating the effects of Kahn's speech at the memorial. That was a Republican led outrage campaign that worked the same way the Monica Lewinski outrage campaign worked. It didn't drive anyone away from voting Democratic, it just insured the Republican base would turn out on election day. Which was all they needed to to do win, even against Wellstone.

Wellstone was barely ahead in the polls the day he died. He was polling a single point above the statistical error margin that had him and Coleman in a dead heat for months. There was still two weeks left to go, and the big guns campaigning on the Republican side had already been brought out to defeat Wellstone in the final two weeks of the campaign, including a shit load of advertising paid for by the Republican National Committee, and visits from the Republican celebrity glitterati in the weekend before the election. Since Mondale announced his candidacy last Thursday, we have seen Dick Cheney, Laura Bush, Presselect, and Rudy Giuliani all campaigning with Coleman in Minnesota.

No, Republican money won this election by a hair, pure and simple. That was all they ever needed to do, and they did it. They bought the Minnesota senate race. Mondale was penniless, and never really had a prayer of winning, which I said as soon as the name was mentioned. He was Old Guard, he was unknown to the younger generation, and he was anathema to the Wellstone ideals.

Coleman didn't win because of Rick Kahn's speech at all. People on the ground in Minnesota saw that moral outrage campaign for what it was, and were disgusted by it. Wellstone's supporters were devastated, and they stayed home, wrote in for Wellstone (over 6700 votes at last count), voted Green, or didn't vote for senate because they couldn't bring themselves to vote for Mondale.

Wellstone was absolutely never the shoe-in to win this seat you are making him out to be. Because he was such a polarizing figure, and hated by many Democrats, his successor was never going to be able to defeat the Republican money on a sympathy vote for Wellstone.

Don't try and scapegoat a grieving, ruined man for this MTed. It is just too low.