Ashwin Madia, Terri Bonoff and Jim Hovland met at the Eden Prairie government center for a MN-03 debate. I estimate that 400 people attended as they'd set up chairs for 200 and the place was packed.

Joe Bodell from MN Campaign Report has analysis and video, Gavin Sullivan has a post up analyzing the significance of the debate, Noah Kunin from the Uptake will have video. mnblue's Grace Kelly and TwoPuttTommy were there, too. I'll link to their posts once they're up.

I followed in a blue sedan into the driveway of the Eden Prairie City Hall. There were about 20 Ashwin supporters by the entrance and I nearly hit one as they all surrounded this blue sedan and ran alongside chanting Ashwin's name as the car made its way up the hill to the parking lot. Once I realized I wasn't in danger of hitting any of them, I figured out I'd tailed Ashwin's car for a little while. Ashwin climbed out and was pumping up his team as I entered the building. The place was packed even by 6:30pm.

The three candidates have come a long way since the first debate back in December. Terri was way better prepared and argued her positions well. Jim showed more fire, had some great quotes, but at times read prepared statements. Ashwin was as articulate as ever. While all three candidates showed their best stuff, I think Ashwin Madia won the debate, but not as clearly as he did back in December.

His realistic, thorough and well-articulated vision for America is compelling. It's obvious why the room was packed with his supporters. His campaign has some serious buzz to it.

I tried to find some people amid the throng without stickers for their candidate. I spoke with Nancy and Steve Mark. They knew Terri but were definitely impressed with Ashwin. Steve said while he was having second thoughts, he would probably continue to support Terri. Nancy liked how well he spoke and how well thought out his ideas were. Another couple were leaning Madia and his performance sealed the deal. The man liked Ashwin because he was articulate, self-effacing, genuine and strung together a list of descriptives which I couldn't write down fast enough. Basically, an Ashwin leaner was sold after seeing him.

Amy Rotenberg moderated and led the candidates through discussions of the economy, education funding, healthcare, building a green economy, transportation, Iraq, emergency response to disasters, dependence upon foreign oil and immigration. So ... pretty much everything.

They all basically agree on education, a renewable economy, transportation, foreign oil and immigration. It just seems that Ashwin can explain his position slightly better, shows his understanding is slightly deeper. Even on issues that like education which Terri has worked on for years and transportation that Jim has advocated on for years.

Terri and Jim differed from Ashwin on Iraq, the economic stimulus package that Bush recently signed into law and healthcare. Terri worked especially hard to differentiate herself from Ashwin. Several attempts fell a bit flat.

Once again, Iraq seemed to be the key.

"I want a gradual, responsible withdrawal," Ashwin stated. "We need to chart a thoughtful path." He thinks a well-planned withdrawal would take 18-24 months. He thinks we'll probably have to keep 10,000-20,000 troops there to protect our diplomatic mission and go after Al Queda. "We need actionable intelligence on the ground," he explained. "Al Queda weren't in Iraq before the invasion and we need to get rid of them now that we invited them in." He said he thinks it possible that we may able to withdraw them all, but he doesn't want to make a promise he cannot keep. He said that we created this mess and its our responsibility to prevent genocide.

Terri wants to begin the withdrawal immediately. She thinks we can have an orderly withdrawal of all our troops in 12-18 months without leaving any behind. She wants a multi-national effort. But she also talked about the US needing to keep the peace in Iraq. She talked about protecting our diplomatic mission. I didn't follow her logic, because if we've left completely, how are going to do keep the peace or protect our diplomatic mission? She also wants to go after Al Queda and thinks we can do it from Kuwait and Turkey. I'm fine with going after Al Queda from outside Iraq, but at least Ashwin's logic is consistent and he has the experience to know what he's talking about. Terri mentioned that she consults with the experts, but she doesn't sound too convincing even with their help. It mainly sounds like she wants to find a way to differentiate herself from Ashwin. While I believe that she opposes the war and wants 100% withdrawal, she came across trying too hard to differentiate herself from Ashwin when it seems to me she's saying the same things about protecting our diplomatic effort and keeping the peace as Ashwin.

Jim stated he wants all our troops out as soon as possible with none remaining. He thinks its best if we help from a distance. He wants to tie funding to a withdrawal plan.

Jim had a great quip when he said "I was talking with a Somali man who said that the US should only go into places where we are invited."

Economic stimulus package

First of all, all three candidates agree that we're in trouble economically. Once again Terri went after Ashwin on his stance on the stimulus package. Ashwin didn't like it because we're borrowing money from China and then buying products

made in other countries. He would have preferred extending unemployment benefits and tax breaks for people who buy energy efficient appliances, cars or hybrids. That would stimulate the economy and encourage more green buying. The bottom line is we've been fiscally irresponsible for too long.

Jim thought that spending .02% of our GDP on a stimulus package wouldn't do that much more damage. He thinks building for a green economy is more of a 50 year proposition. He thinks a huge stimulus to the economy would be dealing with our healthcare crisis.

"Things are going to get worse before they get better and people are hurting right now," Terri explained. While she was basically satisfied with the economic stimulus package she would have liked food stamps to be expanded and unemployment benefits to have been extended.

Healthcare

Jim has the simplest answer. He wants a single payer healthcare system. Medicare for everyone. "Healthcare should not be set up to deliver profits." Surprisingly, the guy who recently switched parties sounded the most progressive on this issue.

"I want those of us with health insurance to be allowed to keep our current healthcare," Ashwin said. "I want everyone else who doesn't get or doesn't want their insurance package to get the same coverage as those in Congress do. If we don't pass this bill, I think we in Congress should get the same healthcare as you." This got chuckles and applause. He thinks that both Democratic Presidential candidates have good healthcare proposals. He emphasized that he wants to be honest and tell you how he wants to pay for it. He'd do it by eliminating the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% of Americans which is 90-125 billion per year and would pay for universal coverage.

Terri believes that everyone deserves the right to healthcare. "Our problem is a lack of political will," she explained. "But I can see in this room that we have that political will." She also wants to regulate the insurance companies. She

believes that updating our electronic record keeping systems would save us $70 billion. She wants to make Minnesota's healthcare standards the national standard.

Dependence upon foreign oil

I highlight this issue because it most differentiated the three candidates and how they approached the debate. I'll post the video if this bit if I find it.

Ashwin talked about how there have been no shared sacrifices in recent years. "We've been told, here's a check for a couple hundred buck. Don't worry and go shopping." The wealthiest Americans got a tax cut they didn't need and didn't ask for. The only people to actually sacrifice are the soldiers who served and their families.

"What if after 9/11, on September 12th," he continued. "President Bush had come before the American people and said 'I am asking you to sacrifice for our country. We are too dependent upon foreign oil so I'm asking that on every Sunday we do everything we can to not drive, to carpool if traveling in necessary.' What if he'd united us to change the way we live."

Ashwin lamented how patriotism has become putting a bumper sticker on your car or SUV, saying you support the troops, but doing nothing else. "That's not patriotism, that's cheerleading. Patriotism is sacrificing for your country." He believes that since we have freed continents from oppression and put a man on the moon, we can end our dependence upon foreign oil by changing to a green economy through tax breaks and other incentives.

Basically, he was brilliant and I fail to do justice to his eloquence.

Jim wants to better fuel consumption by forcing car manufacturers to change the kinds of cars they make. He then told a story of attending a conference at the University of Minnesota on sustainability. There is an initiative led by Rep.

Jim Oberstar to increase the amount of bike trails and walkways in metro areas and they discussed things like that at the conference.

Jim emphasized that since the federal government hasn't done much, mayors have led the way forward. He thinks that dependence upon foreign oil and the debt it is cauusing are a national defense issue.

Terri started well, but rather went off the rails towards the end of her two minutes on this issue. She began buy saying that we as a nation are ready to take bold action. She thinks that young people are leading the way. She told the story of her kids going out and buying new lightbulbs and replaced the old inefficient ones. After Ashwin's brilliant call to action for a new kind of patriotism, she's talking about light bulbs? I sensed the crowd was wondering where she was going with the light bulb story.

She then went after Ashwin for claiming that people wanted these checks so they could go shopping. Basically, she came across as wanting to score points against Ashwin so badly that she's either not paying attention or distorting what he said. The crowd went rather quiet as they realized she'd rather missed his point. It's Bush who told us to "go shopping and don't worry."

It all ended on a moment of sheer zen.

Amy Rotenberg introduced Jim for his closing statement as Governor Hovland. There was a pause and a few snickers. Then Jim stood up to resounding applause and laughter. He played her slip for all it was worth and it was hilarious. I hope Noah puts this up at the Uptake.