http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91308954
I’ve always liked Al Franken, he’s always been much more moderate than he has been stereotyped.
I think he would be a very good voice for the democrats in the senate.
At the very least I’m sure I’ll youtube his debates (I would expect real anger between him and Coleman).
This should be really fun to watch. For one Al Franken has a deep-seated personal hatred for Norm Coleman going back to the Paul Wellstone’s death.
Also Franken has a sense of humor that fairly appropriate for politics.
I honestly think that we’d be better off if we had more humorists in politics. A well-cultivated sense of the absurd is a vital tool in attacking bone-stupid policy.
Too bad Franken comes across as an elitist prick and him not paying his taxes didn’t help him either:
Another senate seat handed to the Republican Party in a year when a Democrat should have won.
I’m not a Minnesotan so I don’t know for sure but isn’t that local paper you referenced pretty heavily biased? The last times I saw poll numbers for Franken vs Coleman it was much closer. Those numbers were at Daily Kos, which is not an unbiased source either but the poll info I’ve read there has generally been reliable.
Also, whats the deal on the taxes thing? Is that something real and substantial or just a campaign cheap shot?
Oh one more thing: perhaps we need a Godwin’s Rule on the fucking ubiquitous overuse of “elitist” as a perjorative for EVERY Democrat. Jesus Christ, get a new meme or something.
Oh one more thing, since I’m feeling cranky: Franken is going to beat Coleman. That’s my prediction. A ton of attack-mud will be slung by Coleman but in the end Coleman is going to have to eat his last 4 years of Bush-love and pay the price. That’s my prediction.
That poll is from April. May’s has it 47-45 Coleman…well inside the margin.
I’m getting really tired of this thinking. (I don’t mean to pick on yurislave… his post is just an example.) Putting up a non-ideal candidate that allows the opposition to win isn’t “handing the other side the election.” Let whomever they want run, let the process work and if the opposition wins… shrug. They win. At some point the people need to take responsibility for their actions & elect the better person, even if that person is “an elitist prick”, too LIEberal, or a gay black jewish welfare queen. If the people would rather have that fucker Norm Coleman over, say, a walking turnip… let them have Coleman.
Franken may very well win, but personally I don’t like it when people show up and run for an office in a state they really don’t know. Franken hasn’t really lived in MN in a long time and while part of being a Senator is dealing with national issues, a big part is also doing things to make the folks at home happy. Franken seems more motivated by national issues than anything else.
And, yes, I felt the same way about Hillary when the ran for Senate in New York. I’ve always wondered if the claims of her being a good senator were a bit of a smokescreen or not since I could see her being covered in anticipation of what she would bring them if she was elected president. Now that that’s off the table (at least for now) I wonder if they will let her drift on her own if she decides to stay in the Senate.
If it’s that close for the incumbent in June, he’s toast.
Franken still identifies with MN, and if I understand things correctly, he is familiar with local issues. I remember reading one of his books way before he had (publicly) considered running for office, and he talked in the book about going back to MN several times to see the folks or something like that.
He can spin it however he wants, but he didn’t move back to MN until 2005. Lot’s of people go back home “to see the folks” but that hardly qualifies you to know what the folks are really thinking.
I’m not saying that Franken can’t end up being a good Senator for the state, I’m just saying that it has the look of carpet bagging to me and that’s something I don’t feel comfortable about personally as a voter, no matter how big a name the person has.
Memes are far too dawkins. Try schtick.
Real enough that’s he’s filing back tax returns in 17 states he owed taxes in but didn’t pay at the time.
But if he’s from there, why is it an issue? It isn’t really like Clinton moving to a state she could win in, it is much more reasonable to return home to become a senator. And if he’s been in touch with his parents who were living there the whole time, what makes you think he has no understanding of the state?
Your standard is whether is has the “look of carpetbagging” to you, the casual, out-of-state observer?
He’s from there, visits the place constantly, has been high visibility in their politics for decades… plus, if you’ve ever heard him talk about anything, ever, he mentions Minnesota more often than Garrison Keillor.
C’mon, work a little. It’s not like the guy has a shortage of actual faults.
Minnesotan here to address a couple of issues:
The Star Tribune, if anything, is considered left-leaning.
To paraphrase Franken on his matchup against Coleman: Franken is the only New York Jew that actually is from Minnesota.
Franken may have only moved back here in 2005, but he’s actually a visible figure in the community. He’s frequently sited in both Minneapolis and St. Paul (I saw him at Hell’s Kitchen a while back), so unlike Coleman, he actually gets out amidst the people.
Franken will win. Bet on it.
Franken seems to spend more time in Minnesota than Libby Dole does here in North Carolina.
Then again, both Dole and Burr are really both ® Glaxo.
…Too Jewish.
I’m not sure what you mean. Hillary’s been re-elected with overwhelming numbers in New York, and for good reason according to your metrics:
That’s just the top of the (pork)barrel. Unmentioned is her energetic courting of the Jewish vote, for example. You can say she’s opportunist in choosing New York as her state of choice, but an accusation that she’s not in touch with what the electorate there wants is a false one.