Twin Cities Pride ended yesturday and might I say, it was quite amazing to so many Minnesotans supporting the GLBT community. I had a blast, it's great going from a very Republican town in Michele Bachmann's district to the Block Party at the Saloon where the place is packed with people supportive of gay rights and are accepting, loving people.
The down side of the day was when I visited my friend who was working the information booth in Loring Park and he told me that by far the most commonly asked question was, where is the Al Franken booth. I am a former Franken intern now supporting Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer 100%. My reasons for why I support JNP and not Franken.
1. Franken has too much baggage and entirely too many incriminating quotes, quotes that he still makes.
2. Franken would've voted for the Iraq War resolution.
3. Franken can't beat Norm Coleman.
4. Franken has horrible approval ratings. I have heard they have been lower than Anne Coulter's, that is just appalling.
5. He is not from Minnesota. I don't care if you lived here when you were five but you left for college and didn't come back. He lived in NYC for 30 years and just moved back to MN in 2004. I severely doubt that he would've moved back to MN if he did not intend to run for the US Senate meaning he has little to no desire to actually live in MN but rather he has a large desire to be in the US Senate.
I know he is our celebrity in the Senate race but that celebrity needs to wear off because MN can do better in picking a Senate candidate who can beat Norm Coleman. Luckily, the MN public does not get to pick who gets the DFL endorsement does, delegates to the convention do and normal people who fawn over celebrities don't generally bother with celebrities, they know what is best for the state, and hopefully they figure out that is Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer. It just really irks me that so many people have already assumed Al Franken will win the endorsement and having the entire DFL endorsement written off already due to a celebrity coming to MN to run for the Senate can only hurt the party and democracy. Lets hear what all the candidates have to say and judge them based off their politics and positions, not on the number of people who have heard the name before country wide.
29 komente:
Franken is a celebrity and made very well for himself over his lifetime. Because of that he should be disqualified? Anyone who listened to his radio program more than once or paid attention to the work he's done in Minnesota over the past several years knows he's a lot more than a name. He's incredibly well-versed on the issues and put in tons of hours fundraising for MN House and Senate candidates the last couple election cycles...not to mention the fundraising appearances he's made in Minnesota all the way back to Paul Wellstone's last campaign (if not further back). He hasn't just shown up in Minnesota out of the blue expecting to be granted the nomination. He's already put in more time/effort for the DFL than the rest of the candidates combined.
His negatives are high now. Given time, people will get to know more than Franken the comedian. Thankfully, with the large amount of money he's raised and will continue to raise, he'll be able to get the word out. Franken's campaign materials have already been fun/clever. I can't wait to see his first campaign commercials! You wait, a year from now people will laugh remembering that people thought him unelectable.
I think it more likely that one year from now, people will laugh that we believed Franken our only hope of turning things around and ousting Coleman. Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer is the best candidate in this race. He is speaking for the voiceless in our society, and bringing light to important issues that we aren't addressing adequately at a federal level (i.e. global warming). Franken would probably do a better job than Coleman; but then again, who wouldn't? We should get Wellstone's seat back and fill it with the person most true to Wellstonian politics: Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer.
Franken would have voted for the Iraq War Resolution, and you say "He's incredibly well versed on the issues". Why? Doesn't that show he didn't know the issues then?
Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer was out front and center opposing the war then and now because he knows the issues thoroughly. He has zero negatives, and as people who tend toward Democrat get to know him they respect and like him because he has the integrety they want in their Senator.
When I have spoken with Franken about Iraq, he spoke in favor of something he called "re-Baathafication" and declared that partitioning Iraq would be the best solution for its current problems. Speaking about Iran, he is another of those who doesn't want to take a unilateral attack "off the table."
Make no mistake, Al Franken is no voice for peace, nor is he anything resembling a coalition-builder. He is a smart guy with a wicked sense of humor and a knack for making money for himself as well as fundraising for other candidates. But he is not Senate material, in my opinion, and he is rather unsubstantial on policy issues.
Like the intern in this story, I would rather see somebody more substantive in the Senate representing me. I like Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer also.
The first anonymous poster does have a point about the money he raised for other candidates in 2006 (I think you are overstating what he has done by saying past elections, I believe it was only 2006, correct me if I'm wrong) and that gives him some credit with DFL'ers and now he can tell everyone, look what I did, I raised money for other candidates.
I think his PAC and raising money for other candidates was a bit self-serving, he cared about the candidates but he knew he was going to run for the Senate, that is why he moved here. He started the PAC to gain connections and to be able to say, I raised money for all of these candidates. Did he have a PAC for New York candidates when he lived there?
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