We’re going to take a short break from financial news until Monday, barring any major news breaks. Enjoy this political piece about Al Franken and the Senate race in Minnesota, and we’ll return to the status of the economy on Monday.
Dear Friend and Reader,
Al Franken is really cool, and these days he’s even cooler because he is the winner of the Democratic primaries for Senator of Minnesota, beating Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer to compete against incumbent Republican, Norm Coleman: a guy so deeply in bed with oil that I’d call him a greaser if it weren’t an insult to The Fonz. The Minnesota accent has just gained some serious points in my book.
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This is not just another Hollywood-guy-gone-political story. Stay with me.
The contender for the Senate is quite a hard-hitter, and as Minnesotans can attest, the election is filled with some of the strongest, bloodiest campaign ads in the entire country.
You can view two videos by clicking here. While my initial reaction is to defend Franken; in truth, there are no winners with blows this low.
On Sept. 16, the Star Tribune published the result of its poll in Minnesota:
According to a new Star Tribune Minnesota Poll, more voters than ever have unfavorable impressions of the two leading contenders for the U.S. Senate. Since May, the number viewing Coleman unfavorably has risen from 33 to 45 percent, while Franken’s unfavorable marks have gone from 39 to 46 percent.
I guess this is what happens when you put a Gemini (Franken: May 21, 1951) and a Leo (Coleman: August 17, 1949) step into the ring together; we get the highly intelligent, fast-thinker vs. the natural leader, the king.
The strangest part of this is the first thing I thought when I heard that Franken won the primaries: “isn’t that the Stuart Smalley guy from Saturday Night Live?” The pseudo-gay, Cosby-sweater wearing, self-help guru?
Poking around a bit, I found there’s a lot more to him. Read this from his Wiki page:
In June 2003, Franken wrote a letter to several conservatives who favored abstinence-only sex education. He asked the recipients to be role models for the youth of America by sharing ‘moment[s] when you were tempted to have sex, but were able to overcome your urges through willpower and strength of character.’ Franken proposed including the contribution in a book he claimed to be writing called Savin’ It! The recipients included then-Attorney General John Ashcroft. The following month, Franken wrote each person who received the previous letter and apologized. He explained that his letter was satirical and said, ‘I am sincerely sorry if I caused any discomfort.’
Top that with his record as talk-radio host of the Al Franken Show on Air America from March 31, 2004 to Feb. 14, 2007 (he left to focus on his campaign for Senate), where his primary focus was getting Bush “unelected.”
Then there are his affirmative positions on gun-control, gay marriage, abortion and protecting the environment and the frivolous lawsuit Fox News issued against him for using their term “Fair and Balanced” on the cover of his 2003 book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right.
He’s written five New York Times bestselling books in total, including Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations, criticizing Limbaugh and other right-wing political figures.
Of course, he’s not perfect: there’s the whole tax evasion thing that can either be the result of bad advice from his accountant or, well, actual tax evasion — but other than that, it’s happy days — Al Franken could be the next Senator of Minnesota.
So far, things are looking good for the Democratic Party. Here’s hoping we can hold on until November.
Fingers crossed,
Uh-oh, I’m thinking Norm Coleman’s ad is going to backfire on him… their ad showed me that Al Franken is a scrappy liberal with a backbone. š We need more like Al, in my view… and funny, too!
I totally relate to this blog post. Being from Minnesota, I’ve seen so many ads & they are all so negative I wish that there was more regulation for accurate, as well as ethical, political campaign ads. It’s getting ridiculous on both sides. I sometimes wish these days that I could vote, yet cast an ‘I will abstain from either choice’ & then I’d wish that vote could count just as equally as every vote. Then each party would have to come up with a better choice & we get to re-vote! Not just not voting, but letting ALL elected officials know that we are no longer happy with these choices being made, at the sacrifice of my taxpayer dollars!