:dubious: This is, of course, meant ironically?
Meant that I find Carrot Top funnier than Al Franken.
And, to mhendo…I have listened to his politics, thankyouverymuch. I’ve even read one of his books. I find him to be a self-congratulatory, over-hyped, basically-a-good-gag-writer-but-wannabe-actor gadfly. Is that ‘radical’ enough for you?
That is intended ironically, it goes without saying. The idea that Carrot Top is funny is almost as laughable as the idea that Al Franken is not.
Hi. Me again. I didn’t include an opinion in the OP because I was trying to decide exactly what I thought about it. I like Al Franken, I think he’s funny and entertaining, and I agree with his politics. The only thing I’d be hesitant about, were I a MN voter, is that he might have trouble making compromises with all the politicians he has lambasted for years.
The idea that he isn’t qualified because he’s a comedian is ridiculous. I wish we had more citizen representatives, from a variety of backgrounds.
Last year Al was all over the state, speaking at fundraisers for various DFL orgs, and we planned our County fundraiser (Oh, and we dropped the term “bean feed” from the ads) around his visit.
I will say I was very impressed by his ability to speak, and what he said. Also, as I recall, the only people he skewered badly, as in more than just a laugh-it-off, good natured ribbing, were the president and right wing talking heads (specifically Bill O’Reilly). We’re a rural county, with a small population. Previously, the largest crowd the County DFL drew was about 250-300, when Sen. Wellstone spoke (according to the long-time party members). We drew 500 at least, and it was standing room only at the end. He’s a draw, and he doesn’t leave the crowd wanting.
There are some others I would support for the nomination, but if he’s the candidate, I’ll be just fine with that.
I’m not surprised at this news. From his last two books I’ve gotten the feeling that he was giving some thought to seeking political office. And I suspect he’s given more thought to several issues than have most of the folks now in the Senate. He will have to clean up his humor some. . . .
And just what is wrong with electing a comedian to the Senate? Hell, once we went and made a B-list Hollywood actor President of the United States!
Most of the bunco artists you know are smart? Interesting. I find them to be mostly drunk.
He announced he’ll be leaving the station either at the same time or very close to the same time that he announced he was running for office. From what I recall I think he’ll be there for another month or so.
Havn’t listened to Air America Radio for some time… I didn’t find XM to be quite worth it so I havn’t heard his show in a while.
Well, every comment you’d made in this thread had nothing to do with his politics, and focused merely on his comedy and his personality. Even this post doesn’t really address his politics, or what you think of them.
Don’t whine when people respond to the posts you actually make.
What’s with you, anyway? I expressed my opinion. You don’t like it? Xin loi. You don’t think that disliking a person’s personality is sufficient for not wanting someone to be an elected official? It seems quite a few elections have been decided on less.
Reminds me of when I saw the comedian Richard Lewis live here in Minnesota. He was doing his New Yorker, hypochondriacal humor. He got a few courtesy checkles at first, then it faded off to dead silence. You could’ve swum in the flop sweat. It was painful to watch him bomb. He was completely out of touch with a Minnesota crowd.
I get that same feeling with Al Franken.
Look, I’m not married to any party. I don’t vote straight-ticket anything. Who knows? Franken might be the best thing since sliced bread. He can write and deliver some one-liners and snipe from afar, but can he debate? Can he formulate legislation? Can he be effective in the give-and-take a senator needs to excel at in order to benefit his constituents? What has he done so far to indicate he can do any of these things? What committees has he served on? Who has he swayed from one side of the fence to the other? How wide is his support base?
I’ll listen to what he has to say, but he’s going to have a steep canyon to climb out of, for me anyway, because I don’t like the guy personally.
Maybe it’s because I think that the qualifications for being a senator seem like they should be rooted in something more serious rather than than comedic. A factory union steward, an ad agency rep, a police captain, or any other position that requires some people management skills as well as the ability to weigh tons of (frequently conflicting) information–all these seem, to me, to be better qualifications for public service than being a gag writer.
Get where I’m coming from? And knock off the “whining” jazz.
Which is precisely the problem with politics as currently conducted. The more people like you who buy into the personality = competence crap, the worse the system gets.
Just MHO. You’re perfectly welcome to vote your prejudices, if that’s what you prefer.
I disagree. The way a person presents himself, his personality, is a quite clear indication of that person’s prejudices, capabilities, competence, intellect, and whatever else you may want to use to measure a person for office.
Being a senator is a great deal about personality. You have to be able to cajole and wheedle. It’s horsetrading and backscratching. You can’t afford to pre-alienate those with whom you must deal in order to get things the things you want done. Senators, especially senators, have to be collaborators.
Has Franken given you any indication that he can do that? It would appear to be quite the opposite to me. He would certainly seem to be more polarizing than consensus-building.
Whatever. You go home and keep a little checklist with tick marks for how often your candidate uses your preferred buzzwords. Me, I’ll wait to see if he says anything that makes sense to me and gives me any reason to believe he can go to Washington and do more than make jokes about Ole and Lena while skewering Rush Limbaugh.
And, what the hell do you mean by this, anyway:
Do you think that politics all of a sudden has come to be about personality? Particularly since television arrived, personality has been one of the most defining factors in politics. It got Kennedy, Reagan and Clinton elected, for sure.
It wasn’t all-important, though. Nixon, both Bushes and Carter got elected, so personality isn’t everything.
But it certainly is something to be considered.
And, why don’t you specify exactly what you mean by “the system” and “worse”? The electoral system? The system of government? What? And, what parts are “worse”? And, how so? You certainly can’t mean the current state of presidential leadership vis-a-vis international affairs because, if you’re still harping on personality, the current president doesn’t have much to praise in the personality department.
Why don’t you tell me, exactly, how the fact that I, and anyone else, when using personality as one of the factors in deciding if a person is suitable to represent the public, has made the system worse. Be specific.
If you can’t distinguish between his persona as a professional comedian and what he may or may not do as a politician, maybe you’d be better off not voting at all. You’re the one who based your initial assessment of him, in your first post in this thread, on his SNL performances. If you think he’ll carry that act over to Capital Hill, you’re delusional.
Never indicated otherwise. But this is quite a different issue than how he behaves on SNL or a radio talkshow, or even in his books.
Has he given you any indication that he can’t? Except for completely unrelated entertainment spots?
Based on what?
And who cares if he’s polarizing. It was George W. Bush, remember, who campaigned in 2000 on the need for less polarization and partisanship in Washington, and look where that got us.
Personally, i think that what Capitol Hill needs is some more genuine debate, more disagreement; when the politicians up there get all chummy with each other and start talking about bipartisan consensus, that’s usually when the American people are about to get screwed.
Again, if you think he’s not serious about this, that he would treat it all like some comedy sketch, you’re dreaming.
Congratulations! You got my point!
I never said it was a new thing; doesn’t make it a good one, though.
You really think that personality wasn’t important in those elections?
Actually, the current president got elected the first time, and possibly the second, at least partly because a good proportion of the dropkicks at the ballot box thought he was a “guy they’d like to have a beer with.” GWB’s folksiness and down-home patina plays well with plenty of people, and if you didn’t notice how many political commentators and members of the public commented on John Kerry’s alleged aloofness and boring personality during the last campaign, i submit you must have had the TV turned off.
Never said that personality couldn’t or shouldn’t weigh into your decision at all. I was simply taking issue with your apparent inability to comprehend that Franken’s comedy persona is not going to determine how he works as a legislator.
Ok, just make it simple for me.
What…have…you…seen…that…would…indicate…that…Al…Franken…has…any…reasonable…number…of…the…attributes…that…would…make…for…a…good…senator?
Are you trying to tell me that he will be 180 degrees different from any manner in which he’s presented himself? And if he’s not, what about him makes you think that he’d be any good at being a senator? What makes you think that, in many of his “completely unrelated entertainment spots” he’s not revealing to you quite preceisely what he is and believes?
And, your “who cares if he’s polarizing” remark is unbelievable. If you think “the system” (in your words) is “worse” (also in your words), then how can any more polarization help?
Clue: It can’t.
I know the things I’d like to see get through Congress won’t occur if every legislator votes along party lines. It’s going to take some wheeling and dealing, and far-anything-wingers aren’t going to contribute to the consensus needed for passage.
Franken impresses me as a far-something-winger. Is there any doubt about that?
Oh fer chrissake. Other than a :rolleyes: , this doesn’t deserve a response.
Going way back to his SNL persona all the way up to any of his more recent ‘unscripted’ appearances, I’ve found him to be annoying and shallow.
Just for the record, I just watched three of his podcasts on YouTube put together by midwestvaluespac.org. He demonstrated a knowledge of the people in politics, but he still couldn’t resist things like advising a Democrat wife to slip her Republican husband something on election day (to keep him from voting) and saying things like there are no good people in the Republican party–attempting to be funny.
He wasn’t.
I submit here that his entertainment persona and his real-life, honest-to-goodness personality are quite closely entertwined and that he couldn’t help but be divisive–an unwelcome attribute in my estimation.
So, anyway, that’ll do it for me in this thread. If you want to talk about specifics and get out of the nebulous (“system” “chummy politicians” “screwing the American people”), whatever, take it to the GD thread.
If you wish to keep sniping at me, have at it. All I have to say is:
Ha ha neener neener neener: You can’t vote for him! 
Finally! A political opinion! I was wondering when you were going to get around to it.
If you had said this at the beginning, i wouldn’t have taken issue with you at all.
Franken’s too far left for you? Fair enough; don’t vote for him. As i said way back in post #18:
But this is a far cry from dismissing him because of his comedy routines.
That’s not the argument i’m making.
The argument was, if you’ll remember, initially made precisely because you criticised him merely for his comic persona.
Again, i never said he would be a good senator. I said that, if he won “i hope he would bring the same leftist integrity to the seat that Paul Wellstone did.” My argument was, is, and always has been simply that your dislike for his comic persona doesn’t mean he’ll be a bad one.
Why?
I’m not talking about polarization for the mere obtuseness of being different. I’m talking about a vigorous debate that actually comes somewhere close to representing the full spectrum of the American people’s political positions, rather than some faux-moderate-that’s-actually-conservative consensus, which is what we tend to get from our leaders.
sigh
His comic persona IS his personality. They’re one in the same. I don’t like it.
Is that simple enough?
Oh, sure, he has donned many a comedic mask, but just go and search out the videos I mentioned. He slips that smug, “I’m too cool for the pool” presence in all of them. That’s what he was like on SNL. That’s what he’s like now.
And, if you can’t understand why further political polarization isn’t desirable, then I doubt that anything I’d say would help you understand it.
Well, i certainly agree with you that it’s simple.
Do you have anything of value to add or would you rather just insult me some more?
I’ve made my arguments. You are free to accept or reject them as you please. I’m done with you now.
Thanks.