he can do this

he's got a good head and, just as important, a good heart. He needs to learn some verbal discipline, however. And he needs to admit with complete candor that he was a comedian and the job of a comedian is to tackle every subject. If he's savvy enough, he can turn the honesty to his advantage. (That means, among other things, keeping the comedy in check. And hey, it's Coleman who's the joke.) Indeed, brutal honesty should defeat a Bush hack every time.

Great.

Now, is there any word as to whether his opponent, Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, will abide by the endorsement and end his campaign?

This is actually an important question. In Minnesota, the party endorsement is significant, but not the final word. The *ACTUAL* final word comes in September when the state candidate primary takes place. The winner of that primary gets to be the one with the (D) after his name in the November election, regardless of what happened today.

That is, unless JNP agrees to abide by the party's endorsement today and end (or suspend) his campaign. If he does not do so, Franken will have to continue to spend lots of money guarding his left flank, instead of focusing his energy on Norm never-met-a-lobbyist-I-didn't-want-to-fellate Coleman.

I have looked at Jack's web site. I have looked at Al's web site. I have looked in all the stories I have seen about the DFL Franken endorsement. I have looked in all the MN news sources and blogs that I follow. None of them have said that Nelson-Pallmeyer is calling it quits.

Is he?

Al Franken would make an excellent Senator. He is passionate about helping this country, and has donated relentlessly his time to our troops to go over and entertain them. He is very bright, and I hope he does well. Minnesota would be lucky to have him.

I'm worried about Franken and his ability to be taken seriously by the bulk of independent voters, but I do think he can do this. Coleman is weak, but he's pretty politically cagey. SJW is exactly right about Franken needing to understand that Republicans are in trouble primarily because they haven't been honest with the people. People understand that satire and comedy is one of the most effective ways to bring forth the truth. He can turn his former career into a real asset for him moving forward, but he needs to avoid any more episodes like the tax story that broke out about him.

I still think this is a great pickup opportunity for the Democrats.

The problem is that he is a COMEDIAN. Coleman was a MAYOR. Granted, we've elected Ventura before but these are more serious times. And even Ventura had been mayor of a suburb. So far, Franken has allowed the Republicans to frame him as not a serious candidate. That's allowed the Republicans to take the focus off of the issues and unfortunately Al has no record on any issue because he has never held any political office or any public service job.

Al Franken will be an intelligent, insightful and informed voice in any Senate debate.

Accounting problems where his business taxes were paid to the wrong states and he repaid to the correct states.

First of all, a matter of style. In Minnesota the Democrats are called officially, The Democratic Farmer-Labor Party, shortened to DFL or DFLers. We are not Dems. There were three distinct parties in Minnesota, the Republicans, The Democrats, and the Farmer-Laborites. At the time of the merger in 1944, the FL'ers held the two senate seats. The merger was done by Hubert Humphrey at the request of FDR who did not see how he could win in 1944 with three slates of electors on the ballot.

Franken is, in most polls, within the margin or error with Coleman, Coleman's re-elects have been under 50% now for about 8 or 9 months. Bush is about as popular here abouts as a June Blizzard, so Franken's strategy will be to deliver, in many ways and over and over again, that Norm is the play thing of Karl Rove (who recruited him for the Senate Seat, and raised his money) and Bush/Cheney. On virtually everything except Anwar Drilling, Norm votes as B/C tell him to vote, and when on one occassion they combined Anwar with something else, he turned his back on his Anwar pledge. Franken has that voting record down pat, and now that Convention is over, he will be all out campaigning against Norm's treason. (god, he even voted for torture.)

What happens when you have a caucus convention system is that in the month or two before convention, you focus on your delegates. Once the endorsement is done, then you broadside the electorate. Al's got ten million in his war chest for the campaign, and he is still raising money, so he has the means to compete.

Coleman has recently hired himself some Republican Swift Boaters for his campaign, so I assume we will see them in action soon enough. That's why you need a stuffed warchest.

Franken now is about where Amy Klobuchar was two years ago at this stage of the campaign, and she whipped Kennedy by 20 points. Polls at this stage in the campaign really don't reflect where things will be in November.

Franken has support all over the state -- that's how he got 62% on the first Ballot in Rochester this weekend. He has been doing DFL Bean Feeds and party dinners, summer parades in small towns, corn on the cob eating festivals and all for two years now, people know him and are fairly positive. He has all the proper endorsements -- for instance you want the Steelworkers up in the 8th District, NE Minnesota, the Iron Range, and he has had that since last fall. For a DFLer to get elected, you have to carry the cities, and the 8th District, and depress the Republican vote in the Suburbs and Western Minnesota.

What I am looking forward to seeing is the duo of Obama and Franken at Farm Fest, which is in July I think. This is a multi-state event in Western Minnesota, complete with plowing contests and all the rest. Anyone running for office gets the platform but they run a pretty sophisticated Q and A about Agriculture. Obama will be fine -- he knows how to campaign amidst Illinois Corn and Soy -- and Franken has perfected his style over the years. That's where we shake loose Republican Votes.