Slate blogger Weigel taking the temperature in Colorado

Dave Weigel– Slate blogger, original Tea Party analyst, champion tweeter, former Journolist contributor and onetime American Independent News Network colleague— landed in Colorado Tuesday to report from the circus that is Centennial State 2010 campaign politics. Weigel is one member of the army of national media parachuting into Denver this week who is worth following. He went to the Pueblo governor’s debate yesterday and watched a lot of TV and he’s already delivering small gems of outsider insight.

A sample:

“Salazar Democrats,” that is, Republicans who voted for the Western Democratic Salazar brothers in the past, will vote Republican this year.

“It’s a shame, because John [Salazar] is a very nice guy,” said Hickman. “But I can’t support him. How can I support any of these guys who support Obama?” He explained: “If you read the doctrine of Marx, Engels, and Lenin, there isn’t much difference between what they wrote and what’s happening today in Washington.”

Having a television in your home in Colorado this month is like having Karl Rove, the man behind conservative PAC American Crossroads, as a house guest.

American Crossroads owns the airwaves with an ad attacking Michael Bennet’s record as Denver’s schools superintendent. Americans for Job Security has another tough ad about Bennet casting “the deciding vote” for unpopular bills. But Bennet is on the air, too, with a straight-to-camera ad in which he admits just how broken Washington is.

Gubernatorial candidates Tancredo and Maes are not like house guests at all, which is a bad thing for them.

– One reason that John Hickenlooper is in command in the governor’s race? He’s the only guy on TV, mixing up a goofy in which he accidentally mounts a rodeo horse with a chaser — him in the same stable, saying how serious the state’s challenges are.

And there’s this:

Yep. The pretty is part of the reason a lot of us put up with the crazy politics. Welcome to Colorado, Dave.

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