Minnesota is all rightwingnuts? Who knew?
[shrug] You’d still be better off with him than with any Republican.
Can you give some examples of any positions held by Franken which you would characterize as extreme or “wingnut?” He seems pretty mainstream to me.
I’m going to start making some Franken and Moore in 2012 bumperstickers. Who wants one?
I’d much rather see an Al Franken and Marion Berry ticket so we could have Franken-Berry '12 bumperstickers.
Point of information: At the time that Hillary was first elected Senator Rudy was still mayor in NYC. And his political career was in the process of self-destructing. Remember, before 9/11 Rudy was planning to retire, and no one expected to miss him. ISTR that the State Republican party was strongly hoping that Guiliani wouldn’t run, because he was seen as such a ‘tainted’ candidate.
Considering how bitter the 2000 NY senatorial race had been, if the Republican candidate had the name recognition of Guiliani, he may well have won. The person Hillary buried was a US Representative from LI (IIRC) by the name of Rick Lazio. And he was effectively a no-body, at the time he announced his run - and still managed to get 43% of the vote, against someone with Hillary’s name recognition. (And in spite of some very biased commentary in the news media just prior to the election.)
There was no grand plan to save Moynihan’s seat from some specific Republican - it was a cold-blooded analysis that with the NYS Republican party still effectively headless after the removal of Al D’Amato two years previously, here was where Hillary could be most easily put into office.
And you have evidence that that’s how Franken thought?
Actually I think that story is more of a reflection of the PG"s reportorial standard than of Pittsburgh area provincialism. In my experience Pittsburgh will lay claim to any successful person who even flew over in an airplane.
Just a little nitpick: Giuliani wasn’t having problems with the state party because of being “tainted.” He had done everything he could to piss off the D’Amato machine, which was still powerful in 2000, despite the senator’s loss. That and the "Mountains of Monroe County gaffe, of course. As it was, the Republican nominee (his name escapes me now) was stuck defending the Pataki Administration’s performance on economic development Upstate, which meant he had to say things that were obviously not true with a straight face. Whoever he was, he’s probably working in the Bush Administration now.
ETA: It was Rick Lazio, and apparently he’s in the private sector.
I know, and he sure wasn’t a national hero at that point. Still, I imagine somebody with his name recognition, who could take credit for cutting crime in NYC, would have been able to raise some significant money. Whether or not Rudy would have been a good candidate, the seat was going to be open, and therefore probably more competitive than it had been in some time.
If that’s true, I could be wrong. I don’t remember hearing that at the time, though, and I think he got the nomination without much trouble.
I’m not a “See Party Label, Make Assumption” kind of guy. I actually spend time looking at the candidates, dude.
Here in Minnesota, in my lifetime anyway, we’ve had a history of both parties putting up candidates at the extreme of the ideology. So we get elections where BOTH candidates are repugnant to people in the middle like me.
That’s one of the reasons Jesse got elected. I for one stepped into the voting booth, figured there was no way I could vote for the extremes, so I voted for Jesse, figuring that he wasn’t going to win but that it’d be a good protest vote.
Imagine my surprise…
Honestly, in my opinion, he didn’t turn out half bad.
It would be nice if all campaign financing came out of state. The pol would not be beholding to any local interests and could govern without consideration to raising state money.
Okay, so it won’t be difficult for you to say what is particularly “fringe” about Al Franken?
Possibly. But while moving to town 30 days before an election and going to a Yankees game and wearing a Yankees cap might endear yourself to New Yorkers, anyone pulling that kind of bullshit here would get a massive, communal middle finger.
The Clintons bought their New York home in September 1999, more than a year before the election. I’m not sure when she moved there. And I don’t know that the Yankees cap or anything else “endeared” her to New York. I think the voters just liked her better than her opponent. 
Freedom isn’t free, punk.
Furthermore, she was just re-elected, so she’s had her “accountability moment”. 
Not from everyone. I know lots of people who think we need Franken and don’t trust/want/need Ceresi.
I’m one of those out-of-state contributors. I sent Al a check. I’m not a special interest, I’m just an ordinary midwestern guy who says, “Al Franken stands for (most of) what I believe in.” I’ve read some of Franken’s books, and I listened online to many of his shows on Air America Radio.He’s a political satirist, but he makes a lot of good sense. He speaks the truth. He delights in pointing out the other side’s lies.
Because of his books and his time on AAR, Franken has fans all across the country. It’s only natural that those fans would support his campaign. Did you notice he has taken a mere $20,000 from PACs?
If Minnesotans want to have a bigger stake in Al Franken’s contributor base, they are welcome to send him a check. I encourage that. Please, outnumber us out-of- state checkwriters.
I would spend more money on Indiana politicians, but it wouldn’t help much. My congressfool, Mike Pence, and my Grand Oil Party Senator, Dick Lugar are in such comfortable seats that they usually don’t bother to campaign.
Oh, c’mon. Have you never heard the man?
This ain’t GD, and I’m not going to scroll through a mass of YouTube clips for a bunch of sites. I’ll leave that up to you.