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How's that working out for you? Franken blames the pollsters, natch...
by Rich Broderick, July 24, 2008 • I took a lot of heat from some readers just prior to the DFL state convention when I suggested that delegates think long and hard about what a weak candidate Al Franken was going to make. At the time I mentioned a poll that showed him running neck and neck with Mike Ciresi, who’d already suspended his campaign, and only a few points ahead of Jack Nelson-Pallmayer. Where was I getting my facts? Franken fans demanded. Al’s going to flatten Coleman, just wait and see!
Well, here we are a little more than three months to go to the general election and results are out on a new MPR poll published July 24. I will be gracious and not say, I told you so.
Then again, maybe not…
“Pollsters also queried voters on Minnesota’s Senate race. The poll shows Republican Norm Coleman with a significant lead over Democrat Al Franken.
Fifty-three percent of those polled say they’re backing Coleman, while 38 percent are backing Franken.
The poll shows Franken is still struggling to convince Democrats to support him, since one in five say they’re voting for Coleman. The Franken campaign questioned the validity of the poll, saying it included a heavier makeup of Republicans.”
Comments
As a first time delegate to
As a first time delegate to the state DFL convention, I was very uncomfortable with the way the teamsters and the DFL ran the campaign and the floor for Franken. I was also disappointed in the endorsement by the DFL Feminist Caucus and the hollow apology that Al read as part of his speech. Some folks were obviously impressed with the apology, but I saw right through it. Now I am getting requests from the Franken campaign for money to counter Coleman’s smear campaign. Yikes, with a different candidate, a smear campaign would not have been possible. Like the author of this article, I’m still restraining myself from saying, “I told you so.” I’m chalking it up to a very disappointing introduction to the democratic process of endorsing the most qualified candidate.
First of all, feel good about yourself
Anyone who takes the time to get involved in the political process for the sole purpose of trying to improve the society we live in deserves to be congratulated, even if your experience this first time out was disappointing. I hope it doesn’t discourage you from further involvement, particularly from the wide array of volunteer activities and positions that are available to people like you who want to make a difference.
As to your point about the DFL convention, it has been my impression for a long time that, if faced with choosing between losing an election and losing control of the party, the powers-that-be in the DFL would much rather lose a statewide election, even one that could have been theirs for the winning. Franken was their choice because the leadership figured that armed with his semi-celebrity status, wildly overestimated wit and charm, and quiver of hackneyed liberal pieties, he stood the best chance of taking Coleman down while never posing a serious threat to the party’s hierarchy. You’d like to think DFL apparatchik would learn from a mistake like this, but, if past is prologue, they won’t.
Norm Coleman — four more years. Yikes is right!
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