Northern Valley Beacon

Tom Daschle spoke in Des Moines, Bill Clinton spoke in Minneapolis, and Jesse Jackson spoke at Northfield, Minn., at St. Olaf College Sunday night. While some pundits are making conjectures over why these prominent progressive figures are coming to this part of the Midwest, the shrewder analysts are pointing out that they were invited to speak. The Midwest is looking for alternatives to the Bush culture.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson says from the miseries of the still-ravaged Gulf Coast to the increasingly bloody battlefronts in Iraq, the Bush administration has shown the rest of the world a toxic mix of arrogance, ineptitude and corruption.

"After [Hurricane] Katrina, the president watched people floating face down in the water or stranded on rooftops while the whole world watched," Jackson said Sunday night. "The whole world watched that, too, and it's going to define America for a long time."

In Iraq, "we have fought ourselves into isolation," he said. "Any nations that supported us have slowly stepped away. It's our war. Lives, money and honor are being lost in that war."

The Star Tribune carries a story.