To be honest, the DFL bench is rather thin. That is why Franken could come in and take it.

I wish Al hadn't decided to do this.

*sigh*

Coleman is the luckiest man alive, a political Ringo Starr. Wellstone dies; the party picks Zombie Mondale; now Chucklehead Al Franken.

A month ago, the incumbent Senator led the comedian 48% to 46%.

Comedian? Hmmm...nice way to marginalize and diminish him, Rasmussen. That jumped out at me right away. Why not call him "author", or "writer" or "radio host", or something like that. Maybe my radar is just set too high these days, but that was an interesting choice of words there.

Having said that, Al needs to get his shit together quick and push back on this so we can get that asshole Coleman out of there.

I love Minnesota, but a lot of really stupid live there. But you could say the same about Pennsylvania, Ohio, the USA, Canada, Mexico, Romania, Tajikistan...

We will not get a true picture until we have
nominated a candidate for President.

Senator Obama ran very strong in Minnesota, so he would give Al a boost. Mr. Franken needs to spend some time with a speech coach. He is very weak in that area.

Didn't Minnesota elect Jesse Ventura Governor?

Maybe Franken should work on building up his pecs.

fwiw, franken has been involved in politics all his adult life, albeit unprofessionally. coleman, the shame of my beloved brooklyn, isn't unbeatable, even by franken.

Anybody that's listened to Al for any significant amount of time would realize what a bright and informed person he is on the important issues.

Based on the above, most comments are coming from peolpe who didn't listen to him on a daily basis.

I won't say that I agreed with him on every position, but he did invite guests with opposing opininions and most importantly, he invited guests who knew what Al didn't know. That is a quality sorely missing from many in Washington.

thanks, carol...it's sad what some people have to do for attention.

as for the subject of this post, we'll see how those numbers move once the dems have a nominee and we're past august. i just can't trust a poll more than 6 months out. of course, by late october, it could be worse...

The problem isn't Minnesotan voters, but our terrible system which places inordinate power in the hands of the most hard core activists. Yes, we have a primary, but it isn't until September and all the major candidates have agreed to abide by the party's endorsement which is made in June. In order to particpate in this endorsement process you have to devote hours of your life not just on the night of the caucus, but in subsequent district conventions. Most voters simply don't have the time or interest in doing this.

Mike Ciresi, who dropped out about a month ago, would have likely been a stronger general election candidate against Coleman, but he failed to appeal to the hard core activists in the way that Franken did. Simmilarly, I understand that many are excited about newcomer and ex-Marine Ashwin Madia, but I also beleive that his opponent who he wrested the party endorsement from, Senator Terri Bonoff, would have been a stronger general election candidate.

Personally, I think that Franken is very smart, well-informed and funny, but I am certain that he will lose to Coleman, who is a much better politican than most readers of TPM will care to admit. The only thing that might save Franken will be a huge Obama tidal wave and/or a backlash against Coleman stemming from some hyper-partisan comments he may foolishly make at the GOP Convention in Saint Paul this September.

This is a great case study of the difference between Democrats and Republicans.

If Franken were a Republican, his national and state party would come immediately to his defense and point out that whatever the criticisms are, they mean nothing and are irrelevant to the issues that are meaningful to Minnesotans. They would agressively defend their candidate and they would not hesitate.

Now, let's look at what the Democrats do...

They see their candidate has a problem and decide to back away from him, hold their hands up and whisper to the media that Franken needs to figure out a way to reverse this trend. No help. Not even a tepid effort to defend the man against this ultimately meaningless criticism that has nothing to do with anything related to being a US Senator.

How typical of the cowardly, ineffective Democrats to behave this way with respect to Al Franken who is a terrific candidate running against one of the slimiest, most hypocritical Republicans in the Senate (and that's sayin somethin!). But instead of coming to his defense, they'll let him either recover on his own without their help or leave him slowly twisting in the wind. With friends like this...

Al should Just keep pounding on Coleman's voting record and let it speak for it self. Display a list of his record in an ad and let the voters see how he has voted against their interest and for the interest of the Bush Administration time and time again. This should be the only ad to run over and over again until the voters get it. Also evoke Wellstone, he will help him through this. Al must win. The whole country need him.

Living in the St. Paul area, but not too engaged with local politics (I just moved here barely a year ago), I have seen many Coleman commercials - all touting his independence from Bush. I haven't seen a single ad on the teevee or heard anything on the Radio (mostly listen to KQ here). Yeah I know Franken is running - but I don't see anything coming from him. Nor in the northern part of the state where I am from originally, and which was the base of Wellstone's strength and could be his...

Honestly, besides articles in the newspaper, I wasn't even sure Franken was running all that seriously. These numbers don't surprise me one bit.

"Difference between Democrats and Republicans" - could.not.agree.more...

Geez, the guy falls 3 points in a poll over six months from the election and everyone's writing his obituary.

After years as a conservative water carrier, Coleman has made a series of very uncharacteristic votes (often voting with Dems) in the past several months because he is terrified of losing his seat. This is still a race Dems can win, with ANY candidate. Someone please get a commercial together highlighting the difference between Coleman's past votes and the ones he made over the last few months, and end it by saying he'll "do anything to win re-election." It will turn off potential liberal voters by showing him as a phony, and turn off conservatives by showing him as a hypocrite who is only interested in re-election. 'Nuff said, you can thank me later.

Food for thought: Two Questions

Question No. 1

It is time to elect a new world leader, and only your vote counts.
Here are the facts about the three candidates. Who would you vote for?

Candidate A

Associates with crooked politicians, and consults with astrologist. He's had two mistresses. He also chain smokes and drinks 8 to 10 martinis a day.

Candidate B

He was kicked out of office twice, sleeps until noon, used opium in college and drinks a quart of whiskey every evening.

Candidate C

He is a decorated war hero. He's a vegetarian, doesn't smoke, drinks an occasional beer and never cheated on his wife.

Which of these candidates would be our choice?

Decide first... no peeking, then scroll down for the response.

Candidate A is Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Candidate B is Winston Churchill.
Candidate C is Adolf Hitler.

Question No.2

Can you imagine working for a company that has a little morethan 500 employees and has the following statistics:

* 29 have been accused of spousal abuse
* 7 have been arrested for fraud
* 19 have been accused of writing bad checks
* 117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
* 3 have done time for assault
* 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
* 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
* 8 have been arrested for shoplifting
* 21 are currently defendants in lawsuits
* 84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year...

Can you guess which organization this is?

Give up yet?

It's the 535 members of the United States Congress.

The same group that crank out hundreds of new laws each year designed to
keep the rest of us in line.