Why the hell isn't Franken doing better in Minnesota?

[PlanetBev]

Hasn't MN had enough of that phony stuffed-shirt Coleman?

Any thoughts on this, MN DU'ers?

[PBS Poll-435]

1. Not from MN, but....

A few "mini-scandals" regarding his businesses.

And some tacky jokes.

It will work itself out.

[SteppingRazor]

2. He's down a couple points to the incumbent...

that's better than anyone else in any Senate race, where incumbency is a factor, except New Hampshire.

[PBS Poll-435]

3. Great point about NH

Talk about your ultimate "buyer's remorse!"

Six years later the people of NH get to right a wrong.

[SteppingRazor]

5. Yeah, Sununu's never lived down the idea that he's an illegitimate senator...

what with the phone bank scandal.

There's a couple other Senate races that have recent polls showing Dems doing better than the GOP incumbent (Alaska and Kentucky spring to mind), but I'm not ready to believe them quite yet. On the other hand, I think the Minnesota polls, given that they've been quite consistent, are probably a pretty good indicator of the race.

[dflprincess]

4. It's early

as summer wears on people will start paying more attention. Once we get to the State Fair (end of August) we should know more. The fair is when everyone gets a chance to check out the candidates one on one.

[tritsofme]

6. Can you blame people being wary of voting for a comedian?

What a ridiculous candidacy in what should be an easy pick up.

Hopefully he is able to ride in on Obama's MN coattails.

[FlaGranny]

7. No more ridiculous than a movie

star being elected president, I'd say.

[blondeatlast]

21. Or the dimwit who traded Sammy Sosa! nt

[Hippo_Tron]

8. MN isn't an easy pickup, Coleman has decent approval ratings

If any candidate was going to unseat him it was going to be on Obama's coattails and that's not an effect we're going to see until later in the season. Chafee was also popular (more than Coleman) but we beat him because the tide was very anti-Republican.

And also if the DFL or the DSCC had someone better to put up, don't you think they would have?

[Occam Bandage]

14. "And also if the DFL or the DSCC had someone better to put up, don't you think they would have?"

It was a pretty weak field. His main challenger was Mike Ciresi, an ultra-wealthy ($14m annual income) trial lawyer with no political experience, who has now twice attempted to buy a Senate seat. Also running was Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, a very liberal (and I say that as a compliment) academic with a good heart but with neither money, nor name recognition, nor a political infrastructure outside St. Paul. Still, JNP pulled in just over 40% at the convention--more a sign of how uneasy the party was with Franken than of strong support for JNP, who was polling in single digits through most of the race.

Franken had money, name recognition, and an enthusiastic young support base--the latter of which is absolutely necessary to win the Senate nomination, given Minnesota's stacked-caucusing system. It was his nomination to lose.

[Hippo_Tron]

16. Right, it was a pretty weak field

It's not like Fanken beat out a former Governor or a sitting Congressman for the nomination. Franken was probably the best chance. Candidates whose only qualification is the ability to self-financed have a mixed record of success. Jon Corzine is one good example of success but Corzine was probably worth half a billion dollars and spent $62 million running for an open seat. Ciresi wouldn't need that much to be equivalent to Corzine given that Corzine spent half of that to defeat a former Governor for the nomination and TV time in Minnesota is far cheaper than it is in New Jersey. But Coleman is a sitting Senator and Ciresi would have to have enough to absolutely bombard the airwaves with ads to stand a chance.

[lojasmo]

13. Franken's been on SEVEN USO tours.

He's been in Iraq and Afghanistan for eleventy billion more days than norm.

You've obviously never heard him speak, seen him in person, or met him.

[onenote]

9. a friend of mine says that after Jesse Ventura, a lot of Minnesotans are wary

of voting for someone with no political background. They went down that road and a lot of them regret it.

[Blarch]

17. Didn't Jesse leave office with good numbers ?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

19. No. By the time his term was up everybody was pretty much fed up with him.

For Jesse, being Governor was all about Jesse and his ego. He made a few good agency appointments but apart from that he was a disaster.

[Occam Bandage]

10. Coleman's run a pretty effective centrist campaign so far. Franken hasn't had a chance to

go on the attack, because, well, he's frankly a lousy candidate: he had a number of issues with unpaid/mispaid taxes that didn't help with his 'lightweight' image, and his judgement/seriousness have been damaged by a series of old, offensive jokes (ranging from a sexually-explicit fantasy he wrote for Playboy to a "joke" that reads more like a matter-of-fact desire to rape Leslie Stahl) the Republicans have been able to bring up.

It's the biggest problem with running a comedian, and it's why comedians don't often run for office, despite being both politically savvy and intelligent--whenever you're serious, your opponent treats you like a joke, and whenever you tell a joke, they act like you were being serious. It's difficult for Franken to focus attention on Coleman when he's dogged with his financial problems and when he has to apologize for another tin-eared joke every other week.

With any luck he'll be able to take control of the narrative again, but if he can't, Wellstone's seat will stay in the hands of Norm.

[MrRobotsHolyOrders]

12. I like when people say exactly what I wanted to say

It takes the burden off of me to put words together in my poor, addled mind.

[northernsoul]

18. a depressing, but largely accurate assessment

Actors who play action heroes can run for office and have any confusion between them and the characters they have portrayed actually work to their benefit. Comedians, on the other hand, face exactly the dilemma you describe.

[lojasmo]

11. He'll be fine once he gets to meet more people.

He has high negatives due to his books, but once you meet him, you see he's got a lot of heart.

He'll rise.

[earthlover]

15. I used to live in MN.

Coleman is slippery as a snake, but he is a very effective politician (in the worst use of the word). He knows how to get votes.

Also, MN has some strong Dem areas (Twin Cities and Iron Range) however much of the state is solidly Rep. Demographically, it has been less and less Blue of late.

Coleman's 02 campaign theme against Wellstone was that wellstone was a great guy but he didn't "get things done". It would be very interesting, seeing what has happened during the past 6 years, if the question of what Coleman "got done" were raised.

Coleman has some very quirky scandals regarding skirt chasing in his resume.

The guy is a skum bucket. He will do anything, say anything to get elected.

My gut feeling from the start was that Franken was the wrong nominee. There WERE alternatives. Someone less able of being characterized as a super-liberal. Minnesotans want change....at the speed of a glacier. Heck, the state may as well BE a glacier in winter!

Hey....I heard a while ago that Ventura was considering running for the Senate as an independent! Haven't heard anything more about this recently. THAT would be interesting.

A comedian running in Lake Wobegon....home to stoic Norwegian bachelor farmers....UFDAH!

[ShadowLiberal]

20. I think we chose the wrong guy in MN, Franken has too much baggage

[Occam Bandage]

22. Al's not a great candidate by any means, but who else could the Dems have run?

JNP, love him dearly, couldn't have won more than a handful of votes outside the Twin Cities. Ciresi is a bland (and kind of wormy-sounding) trial lawyer whose sole qualification for office is his willingness to spend his immense personal fortune. There were a number of completely unremarkable local politicians and Congressional candidates they could have fielded, but none who matched up that great against a somewhat-popular incumbent. Franken brought razzle-dazzle and superstar charisma, and acted like he had won the nomination from the moment he got off the plane at MSP. Without any compelling reason to vote for anyone else in particular, the party followed suit.