He says he'd run against our boy Norm in Minnesota in '08:
Tom Bevan asks if Al will be able to keep his cool:
For one thing, Franken is a loose cannon. He's made a living by shooting his off his mouth (at times in very humorous ways), but he doesn't strike me as possessing enough self-discipline to rein things in. Over the course of a long campaign, I can see his seemingly genetic predisposition to irreverence catching up with him at some point.
The other problem is that in between bouts of humor, Franken can come across as angry and condescending - two traits don't wear well with voters over time. He also seems to have a pretty thin skin and could lose his cool, like he did at the 2004 Republican National Convention when he got into a tussle with a producer from the Laura Ingraham show on "radio row:"
I think the condescension's the bigger problem. At least he has a chance to avoid flying off the handle. Condescension is just a part of his being. It is him. He and Bill Maher exude it in a way I've rarely seen equaled (Olbermann does it, but without the smarmy humor. I'm not sure which is better). Maybe it started as a bit for Franken and Maher, but the two of them have been handing down the haughtiest of comedy to the masses for so long, they'd both take the same approach with public policy, and it wouldn't play. Maher's not running for anything that I know of; I just get the same palpable contempt off him.
For years, they've been telling the same, unfunny Bush jokes, positive that the correct political sentiment alone would compensate. In politics, programs would be "effective" in the same way their jokes are "funny"-- just because they're liberal. The capacity for denial actually would actually make them perfect, straighforward, liberal candidates. It's just that a straightforward, liberal candidate might not be able to beat Norm Coleman. Thank goodness.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member