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Ice Skating Possible in Hell Today
- Filed under: Congress, National Landscape 2008
- Date: Oct 26,2008
For an Ohio blogger, I have paid a lot of attention to the Minnesota Senate race. Well, there has been a shocking development: the Minneapolis Star Tribune has endorsed incumbent Republican Norm Coleman over Democrat Al Franken. When people talk about liberal newspapers, the New York Times is always the one that comes to mind first. The Star Tribune is probably more liberal than any paper in the country - including the NYT. This can be compared to what it would have been like had the Akron Beacon Journal endorsed Ken Blackwell over Ted Strickland in 2006 - only times about 100. Imagine if I announced tomorrow I changed my mind and was voting for Obama. That is how surprising this is. The Star Tribune has been a regular arm of the DNC in going after Coleman for years now. Minnesota Democrats Exposed says not a single newspaper across the left leaning state has endorsed Al Franken. As for the reasoning behind the Strib's endorsement, your guess is as good as mine. I suspect they know Franken would be a total black eye for the state and even they don't want a part of the divisiveness he would bring. I almost wonder what Coleman has done wrong to get this endorsement! And on top of it, the Strib could have endorsed third party candidate and former Senator Dean Barkley if they wanted to; Coleman wasn't their only non-Franken option.
Maybe Franken needs to get in the faces of the editorial board and yell and scream and swear at them.
Short term, Coleman losing would be a crushing blow for Republicans. A high profile senator who has been very effective for his state will have lost to a comedian who doesn't pay taxes and hasn't been funny since around 1989 and really only moved back to Minnesota to run this race. Long term, a Franken win might be a positive for the GOP. It would encourage other high profile stars to run for high profile offices, playing into the Hollywood elite vs. rest of America theme that Republicans love to play up. I don't care about the long term right now. This is a tough race - former Senator Barkley (who replaced Wellstone for the few weeks in late 2002 before Coleman was sworn in and was Jesse Ventura's #1 political adviser) has made the contest into effectively a 2 on 1 as he and Franken constantly team up against Coleman. Franken was DOA until the economic crisis. Like many Democratic challengers across the country, it gave him new life. At the end of the day I find it hard to believe that a majority (or in this case likely a plurality) in any state in the country - politics aside - could vote for a joke like Franken over a serious candidate like Coleman. This endorsement doesn't change minds or change the fact that this race will be close, but it does illustrate that Franken is a ludicrous candidate to begin with, so much so that even the Minneapolis Star-Tribune realizes it.
100 people in the United States have the privilige to be a senator at any given time. Al Franken should not ever be one of them. Six years ago yesterday, Senator Paul Wellstone died in a plane crash and Coleman won the election (which was tight and going to come down to the wire) against his replacement. To say that Paul Wellstone and I did not agree on many issues would be a severe understatement. But Wellstone was a serious senator and fought for what he believed in - like many do on both sides. Franken is not worthy to have any seat in the Senate let alone that of Senator Wellstone.
I'll just tell you, if McCain loses and Franken wins on November 4th then I will……well I don't know what I will do. And of course, the normal disclosure: I have donated to Norm Coleman's reelection committee. I sent a last minute donation on Friday.
In this space later tonight I will give a brief rundown of all contested Senate races. After baseball. Go Phils.
Oh, here it is. Senator Stevens reminded me. In peril GOP seats in bold.
SAFE DEM: Pryor (AR), Biden (DE), Durbin (IL), Harkin (IA), Kerry (MA), Levin (MA), Baucus (MT), Reed (RI), Johnson (SD), Rockefeller (WV), Open/J. Warner (VA)
LIKELY DEM: Lautenberg (NJ), Open/Domenici (NM)
LEAN DEM: Landrieu (LA), Stevens (AK), Sununu (NH), Open/Allard (CO)
TOSS UP: Coleman (MN), Dole (NC), Smith (OR)
LEAN REP: Chambliss (GA), McConnell (KY), Wicker (MS)
LIKELY REP: Sessions (AL), Collins (ME), Graham (SC), Cornyn (TX), Barrasso (WY), Open/Craig (ID), Open/Hagel (NE)
SAFE GOP: Roberts (KS), Cochran (MS), Inhofe (OK), Alexander (TN), Enzi (WY)
The Democrats basically need 9 seats to get to their coveted number of 60. If you assume they win VA, CO, AK, NH, and NM then gets them to 56. They would need the three toss ups (MN, NC, OR) and one other surprise. If they get all three tossups, there is probably a 50/50 chance they steal one of the following: GA, KY, MS. 60 is unlikely, but they are going to gain a significant number.
Stevens was probably going to win in Alaska before today. But if you are going to get smashed, he might as well fall.
13 Responses for "Ice Skating Possible in Hell Today"
[...] Ohio Politics For an Ohio blogger, I have paid a lot of attention to the Minnesota Senate race. Well, there has been a shocking development: the Minneapolis Star Tribune has endorsed incumbent Republican Norm Coleman over Democrat Al Franken. When people talk about liberal newspapers, the New York Times is always the one that comes to mind first. The Star Tribune is probably more liberal than any paper in the country - including the NYT. This can be compared to what it would have been like had the Akron Beacon Journal endorsed Ken Blackwell over Ted Strickland in 2006 - only times about 100. Imagine if I announced tomorrow I changed my mind and was voting for Obama. That is how surprising this is. The Star Tribune has been a regular arm of the DNC in going after Coleman for years now. Minnesota Democrats Exposed says not a single newspaper across the left leaning state has endorsed Al Franken. As for the reasoning behind the Strib's endorsement, your guess is as good as mine. I suspect they know Franken would be a total black eye for the state and even they don't want a part of the divisiveness he would bring. I almost wonder what Coleman has done wrong to get this endorsement! And on top of it, the Strib could have endorsed third party candidate and former Senator Dean Barkley if they wanted to; Coleman wasn't their only non-Franken option. [...]
coleman is about the best conservatives can hope for in minnesota
Funny how newspaper endorsements don't matter much…until they do.
Also interesting is that you give no reasons for disliking Franken. Is it simply because he is a Democrat? It sounds more personal than that.
Franken is a very smart guy. Coleman? Not so much.
Franken thinks he is a very smart guy. Then again, he thinks he's still funny, too.
Wow Ben, This is quite a negative post, lots of hate. I would expect this kind of post if your team had already lost the election, not a week before. Take a breath man.
I dont see one instance of "hate" in that post.
If this were an off year election, I think Franken gets beat if all things are equal. However, Obama is ahead by double-digits and those coat tails will pull Franken across the finish line.
Quite a strong message from the Trib, and impressive actually. Interesting post, Ben.
Maybe I meant fear…fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.
Fear maybe….not anger.
More just I dont want to be embarrassed by Franken in the Senate.
I'm rooting for your Phillies to win this rain-delayed game 5 so that the World Series audience won't be tuning in to game 6 to find Obama on the tube.
The Philly weather didn't co-operate. Now, I don't care if the Rays come back to win it or not. The opportunity was missed.
Mr. Keeler, you're wrong about the StarTribune being "more liberal than any paper in the country". It probably used to be true– not any more. I live in St. Paul, subscribe to the StarTribune, and read it daily. This year, they endorsed almost an equal number of Republicans as Democrats overall– in fact it might have been equal if you include a couple of former Republicans kicked out of the state Party due to (last spring) supporting a badly-needed gas tax hike for road construction.
Their endorsements for the U.S. Congress included not only Coleman for Senate, but also the very conservative John Kline in his re-election bid for the House. They also chose to refrain from an endorsement in the nasty fight to elect a successor to Jim Ramstad, who's retiring.
They also recommended against approving a 0.375% sales tax increase (3/8 of 1% increase, that is) on the ballot for the purpose of natural resource funding (a small part of the increase would also go to the arts).
So a fair-minded look at the paper today, at least in terms of editorial policy, leaves one concluding that they probably still lean to the left, but nowhere near "most liberal paper in the country" anymore. Or– if that is still true, then this nation's newspapers have moved way over the right.
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