That's great news, but the more important question is how he will do on Tuesday.

I haven't been following the race very closely, but a poll today has Al ahead by huge margins among both Dems and all Minnesotans :)

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2008/02/01_senatepoll/senatepollresults.pdf

This is very, very good news. I don't know if Franken will be the nominee but here's hoping whoever is crushed the unctuous Coleman.

Coleman has been a complete disaster. I wonder sometimes what parasite got in his brain between his party switch over, but afterwards, nearly nothing the man said made any sense. And his row with Galloway was an embarrassment for everyone.
He's gotta go .

It's sad however to hear that Franken is as dull as he is live, even in interviews he's sluggish and comes off as though you already know what he's going to say so he just uuummms and Y'knows a lot.He insufficiently energetic and it's a shame because I think he's a true progressive .

He's got to spend some time with the Video camera on a tripod in the basement and watch the tapes untill he'd vote for himself . Practice Al, we know you have it in you, but you have to project and invite.Engage .

Perhaps he should watch Coleman tapes and get enraged enough to remember why he's in this ...Franken is at his best when he's angry.

I met Al in Austin and was pretty impressed with his encyclopedic grasp of the issues and the Bush administration players in the Grand Old Police Blotter.

He'll be a great senator.

Angry Vet:
I believe Franken got into specifically because it is Wellstone's seat(whether he'd admit that is another story). About Franken's campaigning. I bet it has to do with him wanting people to take him seriously. After all, most people know him because of Saturday Night Live. Well it helps that people know his name, SNL is not the best way to do it(because people might not think you are serious).

I suspect that Franken is struggling to overcome negative perceptions of him as 'just a performer', and a comedian at that. Hard to criticize him, whatever the explanation, because the polls seem to show that it's working.

He is a true progressive; moreover, I've read a couple of his books, and it's striking how much sound understanding of nuts-and-bolts policy they contain. I think he'll be a very good senator, and a worthy occupant of the Wellstone seat.

I was born in Northern Minnesota and have lived in DC for the last four years. Norm Coleman truly disgusts me...Since I have lived in DC, I have seen Norm Coleman out on the town twice. The two times I saw him he was at dumpy Capitol Hill bars, getting totally blitzed with his young staffers and interns. You don't really expect to see United States Senators going to $5 bucket of beer nights, but with Norm, I wasn't surprised. Both times I saw him he was in pure "Frat Boy" form and getting cozy with his young blonde staffers. I wasn't surpirsed though, because this is the guy whose wife lives in Hollywood and kids live with other family members. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the good people at the DNC have got some real good dirt on this guy. I am talking about Senator Vitter type dirt.

Why does it matter if he's a boring speaker or "umm"s a lot? Having listened to his radio show almost every day he was on the air, I know Franken KNOWS the issues inside and out, and he thinks about them deeply and really considers them. He seems to care deeply for working people and struggling families. Why do we care if he has a boring personality? He seems like he genuinely cares for the little guy. And he especially cares about our soldiers. On his radio show he went on and on about needing to get the right armor for our soldiers and making sure their deployment lengths were fair. Don't we think this will translate to a good advocate for the little guy in the Senate?

Franken is running a fairly serious campaign here in Minnesota. He's got one funny ad, but the other one talks about how "serious" he is. I hope he wins. He's the serious candidate now, but when he's in the Senate, it's gonna be the best show in town.

Franken's up 3, Ciresi's down 5, it's January, and we're supposed to think Franken is the clear choice on electability? That's absurd. It looks as if any one of these candidates is potentially electable with an effective campaign -- certainly Ciresi would seem to be.

If you spent any time listening to his show on Air America, you know that he knows the topics inside and out. I thought that he was refreshing in that he could be so 'inside baseball' but at the same time be funny. In the Twin Cities they run the Thom Hartmann Show in his old slot , and he's great, but I miss Al. I will be very happy to see him run the Lizard King out of the Senate.

You Minnesotans know what I mean, if you were ever in a room with Normie. He has the personality of a snake. I noticed one day in my grocery store (one that he only visited as Mayor when he wanted us to approve a Twins Stadium ballot initiative) that even with his back to me, that the whole lizard vibe came across. I walked around him to see who it was, and it made sense after that.

I'd vote for Nixon before Coleman.

Jesse and Al in 2012.

I saw Al on his "Lying Liars" tour and he was hilarious - not only could he do deadpan comedy, but also more physical stuff (such as playing Flightsuit George as a literally grunting-and-crotch-grabbing Alpha Male. If he's more sedate now, it's because he wants to show people he's a serious candidate.

Sergei Rostov

Al Franken was a very close friend of Wellstone's dating way back before Wellstone ran for the Senate in 1990. And during that campaign, when we won spending just a little over a million dollars to Boschwitz's eleven million, it was frequently Franken doing cheap fund raisers around the state who kept the lights on and the phones working. As someone who worked on Wellstone's first Senate Campaign when it was a donated Computer hooked up to an answering machine and kept in a rented broom closet (yes, literally) -- Franken could do any issue then, from a Minnesota perspective, just as he can now.

Where did the Republican Version of Norm Coleman come from??? -- well his conversion from DFL to R in the wake of Clinton's victory in 1996 (which he chaired in Minnesota) was at the hands of Boschwitz and Karl Rove. Coleman knew that his anti-Labor decisions as Mayor of St. Paul made him essentially poison for any higher office with DFL endorsement. Coleman's first outing as an R was in 1998, when he ran in a three way race, Skip Humphrey representing the DFL, and Ventura won the Governorship.

And yes, Coleman's "open" marriage to someone who lives in Hollywood has long been known by people in the DFL. It just isn't Minnesota Nice to use such as a campaign tactic unless Coleman first makes use of a similar dirty move.

Assuming Franken does well electing Precinct Delegates on Tuesday -- I see him getting a quality endorsement at the DFL convention in early June, and then running an effective campaign. He has already done what's important -- showing up in all parts of the state for party functions, and local parades, ice cream socials, and roasted corn festivals. At each stop he holds Q and A's as long as folk want to stay. It is why his polls have just moved up at a nice steady rate. And we have nine months to go -- and present trends likely will continue.

Sara

Quote--

"You Minnesotans know what I mean, if you were ever in a room with Normie. He has the personality of a snake"

Well he WAS a Democrat. Would you expect anything less?

I too, would listen to Ass-hat Franken everyday for an hour, but that was because I was to busy to change the radio channel. He is a foul mouth. I never did understand why nothing was done on the day when he spent an hour on preventing pregnancies. He said schools should teach that anal sex is a sure way to prevent it. This guy was serious....and very boring!!

I cannot vote for Coleman, because of his weak stance on illegal immigration, nor will I vote for Franken.

I've heard Franken being interviewed (in a serious manner). He is very well spoken and intelligent. I hope he wins because he does not seem to be a career politician (cheating, no-good, lying crooks in general) and does sound like he would try his best. I think his heart is in the right place and we need more like him regardless of political party.

As for the gentleman that made the RINO comment, todays Neo-cons are the true RINOS. The Republican party used to be the party of small government that stays out of peoples lives. The Neo-cons and their religious right brethren so twisted the Republican party that the founder of the Conservative movement, Barry Goldwater, was quoted as despising what the party had become. These current fools what to be in your bedroom, doctor's office and personal lives in such away that he was ashamed of what had become of the right.

The REAL republicans are men like Arnold and McCain, what share what used to be Republicanism, not fools such as Coulter, Romney, Rush and Falwell.

JB

It's true, Minnesota also elected a former pro wrestler as governor. Maybe we should also revoke California's statehood for electing one half of "Sonny and Cher" to Congress and give the entire US back to England for electing the star of "Bonzo Goes to Town" President. On the flip side, Ventura was a former Navy Seal and Franken is a Harvard graduate.