Jim Hagedorn’s unique style of political commentary mixes cutting humor, insightful political and issue-oriented analysis, and simple commonsense to promote the brand of conservatism established by America’s Founding Fathers, reintroduced by Senator Barry Goldwater and perfected in modern times by President Ronald Reagan, the author’s hero.

Mr. Hagedorn’s specialty is election commentary (Election Masterpiece Analysis).  The author has accurately predicted the past several election trends, often years in advance.  Mr. Hagedorn pokes fun of all deserving national politicians, but his most vicious barbs are reserved for Republicans who mimic Democrats, or as Jim likes to say: Elephants who act like Jackasses.

Mr. Hagedorn, 49, acquired his legislative and election expertise through 25 years of Capitol Hill service from 1984 through 2009.  Jim spent seven years as the senior Legislative Assistant to former Republican Congressman Arlan Stangeland of Minnesota, and a combined 18 years as the Congressional Affairs Officer for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the Financial Management Service – two non-partisan agencies of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

While representing the Department of the Treasury on Capitol Hill, Jim resisted the temptation to promote the expansion of government and Federal spending.  Instead, Jim identified wasteful government habits, devised commonsense government reform legislation and used his contacts with Members of Congress and “inside-the-beltway” power brokers to enact bills that improved government efficiency, reduced spending and cut back the Federal bureaucracy.

Mr. Hagedorn’s crowning achievement was passage of the Mandatory Electronic Funds Transfer Act of 1996, a landmark government reform law that requires Federal agencies to disburse hundreds of millions of annual payments electronically, instead of by paper check.  This commonsense reform improved service to citizens, vastly reduced financial crimes, closed two government check processing centers, eliminated scores of Federal bureaucrat positions, and saved taxpayers $1.5 billion (and counting).

Mr. Hagedorn was one of the first conservatives in the nation to warn that President George W. Bush and his so called compassionate conservative policies were not only undermining the United States, but also posing serious harm to the Republican Party’s viability (See Bush Defeats McCain…Again and other posts from 2005 through 2011).

Jim was the first identified political analyst to reject the premise that the Democrat’s 2008 landslide would usher in an ”Era of Obama” and the effective end of the Republican Party.  Instead, on election day 2008, Mr. Hagedorn boldly predicted that Obama’s win would directly lead to the GOP’s resurgence.

In his Election 2008 Masterpiece Analysis, published November 4, 2008, Jim projected a huge win for Barack Obama and the congressional Democrats, but accurately predicted that Democrats would overplay their hands and expose liberalism for what it is, thus prompting the American People to do what they always do when exposed to raw liberalism - reject it and propel Republicans to ”reverse election” victories in 2010 and 2012.  A further understanding of the Republican resurgence was also published in Jim’s Election 2010 Masterpiece Analysis.

A native of Minnesota, Mr. Hagedorn was born in Blue Earth and raised on the family’s gain and livestock farm near Truman.  The author moved to the Virginia suburbs of Washington D.C. upon his father’s election to Congress in 1974.  The elder Hagedorn, Thomas, served 4 terms as a conservative Republican Congressman from Minnesota.  Jim is a graduate of George Mason University, where he majored in Government and Politics, and he is a life-long member of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.

In 2009 Jim retired early from Federal service and returned to his home state to compete for the Republican nomination in Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District.  Mr. Hagedorn ran as a “passionate Reagan conservative” devoted to reestablishing the Founding Fathers’ Constitutional principles and, thereby, America’s greatness.  Hagedorn also ran on his record of an experienced and successful government reformer and defender of the taxpayers, as well as a fearless candidate with the political skill and raw courage needed to defend conservative principles and effectively attack the liberal incumbent and fight the Democrat machine.

Jim viciously attacked the liberal Democrat incumbent’s left wing ideology and voting record – extolling Representative Tim Walz as the most liberal congressman in the history of southern Minnesota and charging Walz with supporting the policies of European-styled socialism over free enterprise capitalism.

Mr. Hagedorn inventively used Walz’s National Guard service to highlight the Congressman’s leftist views and diminish his public image, saying that the incumbent’s non-combat service in the National Guard was to be commended, but that Walz’s service in the battlefield of Congress was the real issue, and unfortunately the liberal congressman “takes direct marching orders from Nancy Pelosi and is a loyal foot soldier for the left wing of the national Democrat establishment.”

Hagedorn also used Walz’s own personal biography to attack the congressman’s social liberalism.  Hagedorn cited a passage in Walz’s bio that explains how the congressman was raised in a Catholic household in which he was taught the values of public service.  To which Hagedorn lambasted: I find it amusing that Tim Walz, who supports abortion on demand and promotes society’s acceptance of homosexual behavior, would have the nerve to connect the words ”Catholic” and “values” in his self-promoting biography.

Hagedorn hammered Walz for voting leftist and collecting all the Obama trading cards: Obamacare, gays in the military, cap-and-trade, trillion dollar stimulus, closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and moving terrorists into the U.S. court system, repeating, repeating, repeating.

By comparison to liberal Walz, Hagedorn campaigned on:

• restoring the free enterprise tax and regulatory policies of Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy to create economic growth and employment opportunities
• top-to-bottom reform of all agencies, starting with the Department of Defense, to save taxpayer dollars and make America more secure
• expedited military tribunals for accused Islamic terrorists - terrorists should receive the Last Rites, not Miranda Rights
• a renewed effort to implement work-for-welfare policies to empower the lower-class and eliminate fraud and waste
• serious border security, enforcement of immigration laws and rejection of Bush-McCain amnesty schemes in order discourage illegal entery into the U.S., provide an even playing field for U.S. businesses and protect American citizens
• restoration of conservative social policies to strengthen the family, protect human life from conception to last natural breath, and defend the Christian, traditional values that made America a great moral power.

In spite of extensive Tea Party and conservative activist support, Mr. Hagedorn’s conservative, issue-based bid for Congress came up short.  Even more disappointing, moderate Randy Demmer, the Republican Party’s choice to take on Walz in 2010, ran a weak and dispirited and unsuccessful campaign and liberal Walz returned to the Congress for a third term.  For more on this race see www.hagedornforcongress.com and John Gizzi’s Human Events article, Getting it Right in Minnesota -1 (http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=36340).

Jim is currently president of Hagedorn and Associates, a consulting firm that supports entrepreneurial small business ventures and conservative candidates seeking public office.  In October 2011, Mr. Hagedorn announced his strong support for former Speaker Newt Gingrich in the race to replace President Barack Obama.

According to Jim, with the exception of Ronald Reagan, in our lifetimes no elected leader has delivered more for the United States, conservatism and the Republican Party than Newt Gingrich.  It is time for conservatives to rally around the former Speaker and begin the critical effort to restore America’s greatness by replacing Obama’s radicalism with conservatism.  Mr. Hagedorn predicts that Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal will be Mr. Gingrich’s choice to serve as Vice President.

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