The Nation: Al Franken's Rising Fortunes

[marmar]

Al Franken's Rising Fortunes
Jon Wiener


Franken's bid to unseat Minnesota Republican Senator Norm Coleman is gaining strength.


The latest poll of Minnesota voters shows Republican Senator Norm Coleman, up for re-election in 2008, with 49 per cent, and Democratic challenger Al Franken at 42--a seven-point spread. Four months ago, Coleman was ahead by 22. The reason for Coleman's shocking collapse in the polls? He's been supporting Bush on the war.

Any incumbent with less than 50 per cent in the polls a year before the election is considered to be in trouble. Coleman is in trouble, according to the SurveyUSA poll released July 30, especially with women, independents and Twin Cities voters.

Defeating Norm Coleman would be a particularly sweet victory for the anti-war movement. In his college days at Hofstra, Coleman was a prominent opponent of the Vietnam war. The school suspended him in 1970 for participating in a sit-in protesting the Kent State killings. He first won office in St. Paul as a Democrat, chaired the 1996 Senate campaign of Paul Wellstone, and then switched parties and ran for the Senate in 2002 against Wellstone. Wellstone died in a plane crash a week before that election, and Norm Coleman went to the Senate.

Coleman's support for the war has made him the target of both the national Democratic party and independent antiwar groups. The Democrats are already running a TV ad campaign criticizing him for opposing the troop pullout vote in the Senate on July 12. Al Franken ran a full-page newspaper ad highlighting the same vote. (He also has a terrific YouTube video, showing his mastery of the new medium--he knows he's talking to one person at a time, rather than to 200 million at once.)

Coleman has also been targeted by organizers from the antiwar group Iraq Summer, which, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, has persuaded two dozen of Coleman's neighbors in St. Paul to put up lawn signs condemning his support for the war. Americans United for Change is also running a strong TV ad attacking his support for the war. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070813/wiener2

[Bosso 63]

1. Good bye Mr. Coleman.

[bemildred]

2. No no, this can't be right. "The war is a losing issue for Democrats."

:rofl::rofl:

[onehandle]

3. Stay the course, Norm. You tool. nt

[SharonAnn]

4. And i think Minnesota might be interested in a Progressive who thinks infrastructure

(like bridges) is important and that when we reduce taxes, or divert money to "special interests" we are endangering ourselves.

I think Franken can find ways to point out that the "cheap labor conservatives" and the "crony capitalists" are ruining America and endangering its citizens.