Al Franken Begins TV Ad Campaign for Senate Seat
By Nicole Belle Tuesday Jan 15, 2008 5:02pm
Al Franken for Senate announced today that two television ads will begin running on all four major broadcast networks, as well as on cable. The first ads can be seen Tuesday morning, January 15, in the Minneapolis-St. Paul and Duluth markets.[..]
"We're excited to begin this conversation with Minnesota voters," Communications Director Andy Barr said. "This campaign is about Minnesotans who need a voice in Washington - a voice that will stand up to the special interests and stand up for them on the issues that matter. Throughout this year, Al will be spending a lot of time listening to and highlighting those concerns. To change this country, we need to change a political culture in which people feel like they don't matter. In the Senate, Al will use his voice to make sure that they do. And that starts with this campaign.
"That said, as we begin this year, we think it's important that people know who Al is and why he's running, and we're thrilled that Mrs. Molin was able to help us do so in memorable fashion."
It's hard for me to believe that the same people who elected Paul Wellstone could possibly still be supporting Norm Coleman, but according to TPM, Al has jumped from a 22 point deficit in February of last year to a statistical tie by November. Go Al!
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A republican tied into a group that funded Osama Bin Laden. And they paid their Republican buddy with the US GOVERNMENTS MONEY! "The new charges also accuse Mark Deli Siljander, who represented Michigan in Congress from 1981-1987, of receiving $50,000 from the charity in 2004. Siljander, who operates a Washington D.C. public relations firm, was hired to lobby Congress to remove the charity from a U.S. Senate Finance Committee list of non-profit organizations suspected of being involved in supporting international terrorism."
i live in california but i donated ten bucks to al's campaign.
the thought of seeing o'reilly's head explode when al's sworn in as mn.'s next senator made it too hard to resist.
go Al!!!
Can't wait for O'Racist's blotchy head to implode! LOL.
best ads i've seen in a long long time. very direct and funny.
my dad's side of my family are all from Minne....i am pushing them hard to do the correct thing here...even if he is a Donkey.
POST THE VIDEO OF SENATOR WEXLER PUSHING IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS ON THE SENATE FLOOR TODAY!
http://www.wexlerwantshearings.com/
I especially liked the first one. I hope he gets into something about the environment too.
He's getting money from me, no question about it. Minnesota needs Al.
Now they just need someone to unseat Bachmann.
Not all of us Minnesotans support that wanker Norm Coleman. R.I.P. Wellstone, and go Al!
The return of the al franken decade. Excellent
In this campaign season, anyone with a (D) by their name has already won their election.
al franken.
another corporatist shill.
God I'd love to see a Coleman-Franken debate. Al would rip him a new one they way George Galloway did.
Vote for Al don'chano.
i would vote for you al but i live in utah hope you win
I soooooooo badly want to see Coleman get his ass kicked.
And by Al Franken... The guy that got Bill O'Reilly jumpy...
Ahhhh. It would be a thing of beauty.
BlueIndependent @ 9:
Actually, if we have to leave some Repugnicans in office (and I'm sure we won't get rid of all of them...yet), I'd rather have obvious idiots like Bachmann (as opposed to more subtle idiots), since they make such good fodder for arguing why we should not, in fact, have any Repugnicans in office.
Countdown until O'Reilly's head explodes: 10, 9, 8...
Impressive. Best political ads I've seen to date. I've always HATED the redundant "...and I approve this message" crap so it's nice to see someone expand on the idea to actually explain WHY they approve 'this message'.
Excellent. I was googling around for info last night because I hadn't heard much regarding Al's campaign for the Senate and read about the commercials. So glad he's closed the gap on Coleman. Go, Al. Take Coleman to the mat.
Before taking on Coleman, first Franken has to secure the DFL nomination.
http://www.twincities.com/opinion/ci_7969474
Watch Franken in action against his DFL opponents.
http://www.thisweek-online.com/2007/November/16trib-pl-debate-11.17.html
Of course there is another Democrate or two running in Minnesota. Mike Ciresi also has adds running. He might even be better than Wellstone. Ciresi is the lawyer who risked bankrupting his firm taking on the Tobacco industry, when 49 state attorney generals said we'll take the money. He said it's hush money and people have a right to know what the tobacco industry did. And people around the world thank him for bringing the crimes of the industry to light so that they can use the information for their people
So although we might laugh at Al, you might want to take a look at the other people running. As my friend said, do you think the people in Bopal, India would choose a comedian, or the smart lawyer who made Union Carbide pay for killing so many of their people?
I think we should pay more attention to Mike Ciresi, who two of the largest industries in the world tried to bribe. He can put words together. He's been proven in battle. So we are fortunate in Minnesota to have more than one good choice
I Am A Banana @ 15:
A mandatory lutefisk dinner if you vote for Coleman. Uff da.
When the good folks in MN start hearing his message, they should begin to realize that he is a smart, well informed, genuine guy and not just some showbiz political wannabe.
I STILL miss listening to him on Air America.
I wish I could vote for him, Obama and Durbin just aren't funny.
That's great that he cares about healthcare and the poor, but the truth is that Universal Healthcare will not solve any of that. Allow me to be educational for a second.
When you go to buy gas from a gas station, you look at the price because you don't want to spend too much. Now, imagine that your car insurance paid for your gas. Would you care what the price was? Of course not, because someone else was paying for you. The gas station could charge $50 a gallon and you wouldn't care. In fact, after a while they wouldn't post the price anymore. Well, what would happen to people who didn't have car insurance? Right! They would get screwed paying $50 a gallon or more. This is exactly what is happening with healthcare in our Country. When people go to get medical care, they don't ask the price, the doctors don't know the price, and the price rises. Then the people without insurance get screwed.
For people who understand this concept, we are not surprised that the one type of medical care where the price is dropping is Plastic Surgery and Lasik Eye Surgery. Why? Because they are not covered by insurance, so people ask the price and there is competition. So the next question is why are so many people buying insurance, and why is there no competition? The truth is that there are tax incentives for businesses that were in place after WWII that encourage them to offer health insurance to their employees. The people who don't by the insurance, however, get screwed (back to the gasoline example). So what is the solution? We have two choices. 1) Repeal the incentive in the tax code that moved everyone to buy insurance; or 2) Use health savings accounts like Whole Foods does for their employees, where people pay a higher premium, but actually keep the money not used in the account, causing them to ask the doctors for the price. This lowers the cost of care, and actually has the long-term result of having people take better care of themselves to save money. The answer is not Universal Healthcare; it is competition via choice.
As a democrat who lives in Mississippi and loves the climate but dislikes the conservative politics, Al as a senator representing Minnesota could make me move there.
The U.S. Senate desperately needs someone like Al Franken. In fact, the U.S. Senate desperately needs 100 someones like Al Franken.
Franken was great on Ed Schultz's show yesterday. I can't wait until Norm Coleman gets to spend more time with his family
I'll probably be jumped on for saying it, but this is a really REALLY bad idea. Al Frankin will be the new 'get out the vote guy' for the GOP all over America. Franken's been doing a great job for the left by pricking and otherwise taking the piss out of the right wing flying monkey squad for years, and that's his true calling. But run him for Senate, and the Dems will look stupid.
Pericles @ 31:
With the shape the GOP is in now? Are you kidding. Franken's popularity is just a sign of what's headed their way.
Go Al!
You ARE smart enough... and people like you.
"The answer is not Universal Healthcare; it is competition via choice."
Yeah but what happens when your "choice" say you can't have the life saving operation because they decided that you're failing [enter organ here] is not one of the things they cover until a couple it's too late.
With universal health care..and I speak from very recent personnal experience..you get sick you go to the hospital you get better you go home you do not sell your house to pay for it. You do pay your monthly premiums [my wife and I pay less than $100 monthly] and sure my taxes are a bit high but dude I never worry about getting sick. Our system is miles from perfect but I don't know anybody up here who'd want a U.S. style system. As somebody who suffers from Chronic illness I would be unable to get insurance in your fair country if I was to move there. If I relapsed I'm hooped. Nice choice, no I'll take our less than perfect system thanx at least I KNOW I'll get the care I need.
Al Franken is a Harvard graduate with impeccable writing credentials and good, sound, mostly progressive ideas on most areas of critical importance in the country today. I hardly think he will make a huge fool of himself. If he turns out to be someone the left can rally around and beat back the corporate/police state, so be it. He is sure to win the Senate race and certainly won't be any worse than that guy that used to be Cher's straight man, Gopher Grandy, Grandpa Fred, or Red Ink Ronnie.
I really hope the voters of Minnesota put Al Franken in the Senate.
You all know that with Franken in the most exclusive club in the states, he'd be watching out for his state and his country. I think we would all benefit from him.
His love of country (and the way it SHOULD be run) cannot be questioned.
Devil's Advocate @ 27:
Your free market argument sounds very TRUTHY, but, if true, can you explain to me why the only first world country to still have a private, free market health care system has the highest per capita cost for medical care, and the fewest people covered? Can you also explain why all the other contries that have universal healthcare are NOT being charged ridiculously high rates for doctors' services?
(What you say is true. The patients in Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland etc. are allowed to choose their own doctor, and usually go to the best one they can find. Yet, since they don't pay a bill, or see a bill for services, they have no idea how much those services cost. So, why aren't doctors in Canada charging $5000 per hour, regardless of their level of success or competence, since there are apparently no free market forces at work?)
Max @ 28:
US senators don't represent states, they represent the federal government!
BennyP @ 33:
*facepalm*
I can already see the Republican attack adds. Stewart Smalley with bin Laden CGId in where the teddybear used to be. ;D
Wow... those are two of the smartest and most convincing political ads I've seen in a long, long time, and they both present Franken in the light he needs to cast for himself: a serious candidate who'll fight to get things done in Washington, but whose roots are in Minnesota.
Guess it helps to have an Emmy-award winning writer on the team when you're coming up with this kind of stuff
vrk @ 11:
You are the ONLY other person I have ever even heard of that remembers that!
I actually wrote a fan letter to SNL asking what to do once the decade of "me, Al Franken" was over.
Unfortunately, I didn't get a reply.
Thank you however for really making my day.
Al in 08. I'll take a Deadhead over an asshat any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
It's interesting to see the style that he uses: he couldn't go with the typical candidate ad because he's too well-known as a
comediansatirist, but he couldn't be too jokey because he's trying to make a transition. I think he did well. I particularly noted the use of the phrase "I'm serious about..." at the end of both commercials.Devil's Advocate is a firm believer in the proposition that a free market means that every billionaire and every poor person have a free and equal right to pay $120,000.00 for open heart surgery.
The free market means everyone has the freedom to spend $12,000,000.00 for an estate in the Hamptons, whether they are a beggar or a Hedge Fund CEO. That's the sort of freedom America needs to be great! Without that freedom, are Americans more than slaves of the government?
When I think about the millions I spent on my catamaran (that's a yacht), I can't imagine living in a country where I wouldn't be free to spend my money as I please. It is critical to understand that this freedom _equals_ equality, they are identical! All of you are free to offer me 4,000,000.00 for my yacht. Each and every one of you. That's freedom. That's what freedom means.
The free market makes us all free and equal, because we all can equally pay $3,000.00 a month for prescription drugs for a rare condition.
jr @ 30:
I sent Al a few dollars. I hope he wins. I love his statement that he wants to run for office so he can spend less time with his family.
Kudos to Al Franken for doing more then the usual BS from Hollywood's Left of talking a big game but never backing it up with more then just words. Sean Penn should take notes.
Wrong. The are all representatives of the state of their election.
Josh SN @ 42:
What you've just said pretty much sums up what it took Milton Friedman half a dozen books to say. Congratulations. (Of course, you left out most of the obfuscation that Friedman uses, but we can do without all that fluff anyway. Just give me the Reader's Digest version of it.)
Why I don't like Al Franken.
1.Zionist
2.Not at all funny
jwf @ 44:
Because of my liberal leanings, I too would like to see Al Franken in office. I have watched Franken throughout his career. He shows a serious perspective about life that he made a part of his comedy. He'll do what he claims needs to be done in America. Go Franken.
Joseph
Go Al! Great ads. He's got the substance and the drive for it. Somewhere, Paul Wellstone is smiling.
Tim in Japan @ 41:
Marty @ 20:
That's because unlike almost everyone else in Congress, Al was born with a functioning brain, and unlike almost everyone else in Congress, he assumes most of his potential constituency have them also. I do so love that man. I'd move from sunny South Florida to friggging icy Minnesota just to vote for him. And will he run for President in 2016? Oh, homina homina.
Devil's Advocate @ 27:
You... don't think insurance companies and doctors come to some sort of agreement over what can be charged and what can be paid for a particular procedure or test?
Have you not heard of the HMO and the PPO? Why do you think those "in-network" doctors are "in-network?" It ain't because they bought a car from the insurer's brother-in-law. (Well, not usually anyway.)
Do you not realize that most of the more sensible healthcare solutions being put forth would merely turn the US into one giant PPO? With doctors and insurers all agreeing about what can be charged and what's too damn much to charge or pay? What pray tell is wrong with that? As long, that is, as there's someone telling insurers they can't tell Mom that her kidney transplant is an "unnecessary procedure." That'd be the only major stipulation.
Pericles @ 31:
Run him for Senate, and the rest of the entire Senate will look stupid. He's a pretty amazingly intelligent guy.
Cupid1d @ 34:
Pretty sure every plan pitched by all the current candidates (the ones that y'know, act like they actually care) has a provision to make that illegal. So huzzah for that.
I watched a couple of the DFL debates.
I am a fan of Al's but Al is not the best person running, imo.
I thought this guy ran rings around him.
http://www.ciresiforsenate.com/
Best of Luck to in your effort Al, I work in Healthcare and we do have a very crisis
I totally donated 5 bucks to his campaign, cause he asked! Go AL!!!
I also kicked in a few bucks to Al's campaign. Go Al go. America needs you now more than ever.
Hey, notice the tag line in both ads - about him being "serious"....? Way to pre-empt the obvious criticism about his career as a comedian / satirist.
True MN progressives will be caucusing for Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer (www.jackforsenate.org) on 2/5/08. Minnesota DFLers are privileged to have three viable choices this year with Franken and Ciresi, but having seen several debates/forums with these candidates, Jack deserves Minnesota's support.
www.jackforsenate.org
sorry 'bout that, eh.
I'm telling y'all he'll win!
I love Al and those are great ads.
Apart from that, I felt like I was watching Fargo. LOL. I love the accents!
One smart individual running for the Senate...I hope he wins. I would vote for him if he were in my State.
I always thought al franken was the man.
His commercials should end with "al franken for senate. why? because I'm good enough, I'm smart enough and doggone-it people like me"
I love the tag line: "I'm serious about fighting for you."
Let's hope Minnesota is a Democratic pickup.
I hope Al beats the hell out of Norm Colman. The man is simply trash and needs to be kicked out on his ass, like so many other's.
Go Al.
I love this guy! Way to go Al, may the wind be at all of our backs and especially yours sir!
O'WHO.... IN A YEAR O'REILLY WILL BE SUCKING DICK FOR THE HONOR OF INTERVIEWING AL...
AND I'M JUST THE DICK HE SHOULD SUCK
On topic, I love Franken. He's a great candidate, and I applaud him for being willing to stick his neck out.
Juba @ 48:
Franken is funny, and you are an anti-semite. Franken, although Jewish, is not remotely Zionist.
Now a little off topic:
Devil's Advocate @ 27:
Please, stop being "educational." What your free-market analysis neglects is the dynamics of cost vis a vis speed of intervention. The longer one waits to treat a health problem, the more expensive it gets. For example, cholesterol screening is less expensive than angioplasty which is less expensive than long-term care for someone who has had a stroke. In fact, the last I saw, on average, something like 90% of our life-time healthcare costs come in the last six months of our life.
Bottom line, preventative measures are way more cost-effective. But when the free market is employed, lots of folks will forego the cost of preventative care in the hopes that they never get sick. When they get sick, the hospitals are required to help them anyway and eat the cost - which they have to pass on to all of us.
OK, Al Rocks, Get wiht it, if your not !!!
He's getting the Deadhead constituancy.
If your coming to MSP for GOP Convention.
Get a hold of me at http://myspave.com/vegheadnow
Dan
Minn. should be so lucky to have Al.
I wish I lived in Minnesota.
I'm so glad to have residency in both Minnesota and Wisconsin: Can you imagine a Feingold & Franken ran midwest???
My wife & I sent money to Al, met him in Atlanta, he's a class act all the way. His humor goes without saying. He's knowledgeable, well schooled, and will take good care of the people in Minnesota, along the lines of his great former colleague/friend Paul Wellstone.
Good luck Al, Coleman is an empty suit in D.C. that needs to be taken to the cleaners...
"The Truth with Jokes" by Al Franken lives. Senator Al Franken, I like the sound.
Before you get too excited about Al, look at the ads from his main primary opponent. Like he says, he already has a track record of successfully taking on corporations for Minnesota with big-buck results. Actually, a bit like John Edwards in performance if not so much the boyish good looks:
http://www.ciresiforsenate.com/
Franken has many good qualities but I do not think he is cut out to be a politician. He can be made to look like a clown the ads notwithstanding. And I would argue that he might not win a debate with Coleman. Al is very rational/cerebral. Is that a bad thing? Of course not. But people might walk away thinking Coleman is the better statesman and orator.
Minnesota is very, very different today from the caricature of Humphrey and McGovern progressiveness that Al probably still sees from when he left the state in the 70s. We have a Republican governor and the state is split nearly 50-50. Coleman has been allowed to manage his career carefully. If the Republicans would win an unpopular vote anyway, Coleman has been allowed "to vote with the people of Minnesota!" If you are a suburban/rural Minnesotan you just might think Coleman _does_ represent your values well. Also, bad for all Democratic candidates, is the history of Minnesotans to exercise this perverse yin-yang and have one Democrat and one Republican in the Senate to watch each other carefully. We already have one more-or-less Democrat in Amy Klobuchar so I wouldn't begin to make light of the difficulty getting a second one elected. People who don't live in the state should understand these dynamics before thinking Franken has it in the bag.
d @ 56:
Interesting. I've attended quite a few of the DFL debates and both Ciresi & Franken did poorly against Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer. What bothers me is that voters seem beholden to the idea that name recognition & money actually mean more than principals. Jack is by far the most progressive candidate on the ballot and will give Ciresi and Franken a run for their money. Go, Jack!
smchris @ 78:
Interesting point, but I think you fail to see how hated Norm Coleman is in most of Minnesota. A big part of the reason he is in the senate right now was Paul Wellstone's untimely death and the fake outrage created surrounding his memorial service. Add to that Coleman's support of Bush and you end up with an extremely unliked senator. Also, Minnesota is not the "purple" state so many believe it to be. In many races, especially the past few gubernatorial races, there have been three candidates. One republican, one dfl, and one independent or green. What often results is a split progressive vote, especially when considering how weak previous DFL candidates for governor have been. The suburbs of MSP are a little more red, but not enough to truly ever swing this whole state red.
NO.31 WRONG Al would be great in congress,Paul was also great
Some Guy Says At #80:
"A big part of the reason he is in the senate right now was Paul Wellstone’s untimely death and the fake outrage created surrounding his memorial service."
Nothing like the fake outrage they can generate in farm country running radio spots of Franken in his own words babbling about the "four hours he stared at a girl's boobs at the Dead concert on acid" on his radio program. The guy's got _way_ too big an uncensored mouth to be a politician. Comedian, no problem. Politician, problem.
"Add to that Coleman’s support of Bush..." Really? Like I say, Coleman's career has been very carefully moderated. If the Republican votes were there, he was _often_ allowed to cross over and "vote Minnesotan" and get a friendly nod in the mainstream media for "standing on principle". Was he there when a liberal vote was needed? No. Will the electorate notice or care? We'll see.
"Minnesota is not the “purple” state so many believe..." Get outside the Minneapolis/St. Paul inner Beltway and perpetually depressed Iron Range much? If I remember the last Red/Blue map I saw, you could drive from Stillwater on the Wisconsin border to Moorhead on the North Dakota border and not hit a blue county. Not to mention the Rochester metropolitan area to the south of the metro as a Mayo medical professional hotbed of Republicanism who perpetually bitch about their "African problems" and Michelle Bachmann's St. Cloud and their university's decade's long history of swastika graffitti.
Old Billy @ 71:
Let me get this straight, because your logic is quite intriguing. Stating the obvious fact (just Google Al Franken and Israel, or listen to his radio show, then try and tell me he isn't a Zionist) that Al Franken is a Zionist, makes me an Anti-Semite.
Hmm.....so if I say Chomsky (who is also Jewish) is correct and even handed in his opinions of Israel, does that erase my anti-Semitism? Or doesn't he count because he's a 'self hating Jew'?
Or perhaps it's because you like to call people names to smear them when you don't agree with their ideas?
Oh and I stand by my claim that Al isn't the least bit funny. But seeing as how comedy is subjective art form, feel free to laugh yourself silly.
Please Minnesota give is Al Franken, and more cow bell.
Al's going to make a good senator. He gives a shit.
Pericles @ 31:
Thanks for your concern.
Awesome ads. Go Al Go!
It's pretty impossible to hate Al Franken once he's turned his charm on. He knows his issues, he's good on TV and he's sincere.
How could anyone be concerned. The GOP got Reagan elected because he was good on TV. Al Franken has got that and so much more.
smchris, you have a point to some extent. I believe that the blue areas are enough to overcome the red, if the there are enough independents who vote Dem in the red areas. The Twin Cities metro area makes up about 60% of the state's population, but outside of the core Minneapolis-St. Paul area there are a lot of tax hating bible thumpting Republicans. However, with a presidential election happening at the same time, I'm hopeful that we'll come around this time. After all, the last time Minnesota voted Republican in the Presidential election was 1972. Granted Mondale was on the ballot in '76, '80, and '84, but at least we didn't vote for Dumbya, Dole or Poppy.
Come on, Minnesotans... this could be the coolest thing your state ever does! Imagine how much more entertaining you'll make C-Span for everybody!
IdahoMoe @ 86:
Ironically, I think he'd be a pretty GOOD senator! It's just that the optics look bad, and hand the Republicans a lot of free ammunition.
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