It’s (sorta) official: Al Franken is running for the Senate. I don’t know if this should be here or in Cafe Society.
Does he have a chance? I don’t know about the other prospective candidates, and how popular or unpopular Norm Coleman is in Minnesota.
And then there’s the continuing issue of the celebritization of politics. Can people really trust a comedian, even a smart and political one, to conduct a serious campaign for office?
Lincoln did.
Having read several of Franken’s books, I would say, definitely.
Why not? He’s good enough, he’s smart enough, and, doggone it, people *like * him!
Don’t much like the idea. Politics is, unfairly, all about perceptions and images, and Franken is the arch-sterotype of the effete liberal weenie. He isn’t, but what difference does that make? Being such a public person, he doesn’t have the opportunity to define himself in the public eye, he already is. He will lose some of the dependable progressive vote here in the People’s Republic of Minnesota, people who can’t take such a candidacy seriously, folks. And his public persona will not lure anybody to cross from the Dark Side.
Which might mean another four years of Norm Coleman. What kind of guy do you have to be for Garrison Keillor to literally hate yer guts?
Don’t do it, Al. Do what you do.
Schwarzenegger wasn’t a comedian, but largely the same question applies.
I think that he can build a serious campaign with supporters before people would start asking that sort of thing; by the time anybody really cared enough to learn about it, there would already be a decent amount of organization done.
The same people who elected Jesse Ventura Governor won’t be able to take Al Franken’s candidacy seriously?
I know it’s cold up there in Nipples, but I didn’t think it actually slowed down the passage of time.
Franken can easily dump the liberal weenie image by using his fighting skills. I’m not kidding, he was on the wrestling team in college. Wrestlers, the real kind as opposed to the fakes, are tough. Franken’s obviously softened up a lot, but I bet he could take Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity down in about three seconds and have them crying “Uncle!” in another ten seconds. He should do this. Nothing shakes a weenie image like kicking someone’s ass. And I’d love to see that blowhard O’Reilly put in a hammerlock by Franken and pretzelfied until he begged for mercy.
Franken already has a standing offer to O’Reilly to fight him. I don’t think O’Reilly’s gonna take him up on it. Hannity seems kinda dumb, though.
Oh, hell yes! There’s a place just outside of Duluth where it’s 1958!
Why not? Are you afraid he’ll win in the primary and lose in the general? Who will his competition be in the primary?
And lose the goofy glasses…
Does anyone here have the slightest doubt he would make a better-than-average senator?
Oooh, that was low! 
Well, it’s not like Duluth itself is much higher than that. The whole area is in the high fifties, with occasional spikes as high as 1962. But we’ve got a high pressure temporal front coming down out of Canada, that’s going to be pushing the whole state back into the 1890s. So if you’re going out this weekend, be sure to where your frock coats and girdles!
Now back to Jim, with sports.
That’s right- in fact, he tackled a heckler or something at a Howard Dean rally a few years ago. If only he could save that as an October Surprise.
And then there’s Lake Wobegon . . .
If Coleman will agree to decide the election by Steel Cage Death Match…
Been wondering about this. Coleman has a lot of name recognition here. Was mayor, ran for governor, and now a senator. He got his senate seat after Wellstone died in a plane accident. However, the polls did say they were pretty close at the time and he did eventually go on to beat Mondale 50%-47%.
How vulnerable is Coleman? He won by 3% against a well known Minnesotan. He is a member of several senate committees. Can call in the big bucks apparently and has some friends. Which almost got him chairman for whatever that thing was. He’s got a conservative voting record which will do good outside of the Metro. Maybe you could attack Coleman for his shifting views (especially concerning the democratic filibuster), the war, his once close ties to Bush.
Then there’s Franken. Comedian. Radio host. Hmm. Wellstone had one of the most liberal voting records and he still won 2 terms. So being a Liberal shouldn’t hurt Franken too much. But at this point, Coleman looks pretty safe.
I never heard of Coleman before this thread, but based on this, he’s an opportunistic chameleon shitbag who needs to go. Hard to imagine how a state as liberal as Minnesota could have elected him in the first place.
You just described the entire Iron Range…
Yay (sp?)! He’d be in the top tenth percentile of intelligence in the Senate. I hope the iconoclasts in Minnesota will elect a rational secular human who has the best interests of the United States in mind. Not to mention that he’d be hilarious. God help those morons up against him in a debate on the Senate floor. I’d be scared shitless.
I know about 10 people in Minnesota, and I hope to convince at least one of them to switch allegiances to my man.