I went over to the Barnes & Noble at Union Square in New York City today to check out Al Franken.
Were any other Kossacks there?
A few observations below the fold.
He was there to sign copies of his new book The Truth (with jokes). I arrived a half hour before the event was scheduled to begin and it was already pretty much packed. All the seats were taken but there was standing room.
There was a man with a camera there shooting the event. Upon closer inspection it turned out to be none other than DA Pennebaker, one of my favorite documentary filmmakers. If you don't know the name, his credits include Don't Look Back about Bob Dylan, Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, the Bowie concert flick, and the War Room about Carville/Stephanopoulos during the '92 election (a must see, btw). I didn't get to find out what he was up to, but my hope is that he's working on a doc about Al.
Also in attendance was Al's wife, who he introduced to the audience. I'd never seen her before, she's very pretty.
Well, Al came out and spoke for almost an hour. My first impression was, "what a nerd. he must of got beaten up constantly in school." There's no getting around it, the guy looks like a big dork. But once he began speaking I remembered why I like him so much. He was articulate and funny, not afraid to call 'bullshit' when need be, but also very warm and sincere.
He began by explaining the video bit he has posted on Amazon.com for his new book. He then said that since then he's been getting all these complaints about what poor taste he showed by beating up the right wing idiot in the video. He went on to say "I want to assure you that no real right wing idiots were harmed in the making of that video." Similarly, he's been getting complaints about his appearance on Letterman in which he urged a constitional ammendment to ensure that no sitting president ever be executed (since GWB is possibly an accomplice to treason -his fathers word for it- and traitors are to be executed.) He said the right wing sites were saying he was calling for the execution of the president.
Franken then explained the outline of his book, which is divided into three parts. The first is 'the triumph of evil,' (how we got to where we're at), then 'the seeds of destruction,' (to which he looked up, smiled and said "I think we're starting to see some of that now." which got a big applause from the crowd.), and finally something along the lines of 'reasons for hope.' (I don't remember exactly, and I didn't get the book, though I do plan to read it. But you get the idea anyway)
For each of those three sections he gave examples and told jokes to illustrate his points. About half way through he read a short chapter in his book aloud. It was about his father (who is now passed) and he got choked up repeatedly. It actually made me a little uncomfortable, but the crowd was supportive as he plugged along in between tissues. The story was about his father's sense of religion, and how even though he wouldn't be considered a very religious person, he sensed there was something 'behind it all,' and therefore a reason to strive to be a good person. He pointed out this actually had a lot in common with the spiritual views of this country's founding fathers, citing John Adams proclamation that his personal creed was simply "be just and good." (to which Jefferson responded that in those four words "all our inquiries must end.") His ultimate point was that we "must not cede ground when it comes to values." He brought this up again at the end of his talk. He clearly feels strongly that our priorities reflect OUR values, and we need to talk about those values, and show people what we stand for.
After he finished speaking he answered some questions. I usually find my self getting frustrated at these Q&A things because it seems like most people just get up there to hear themselves talk. In this case there was some of that, but not too bad. The most interesting answer, in my opinion, was in response to a 'hostile' question. A right wing guy, or at least a big supporter of our Iraq adventure said something along the lines of "you mentioned that 2000 Americans have died in Iraq, but what about the 200,000 Iraqis killed by Saddam Hussein. How can you say this war wasn't worth it when we've liberated these people from such a brutal tyrant." The questioner got some low level boo's and hisses, but Al quickly shushed the audience, saying, "no, no, we need to have this conversation." Personally I really liked the way Al handled it. After all, the guy didn't come out yelling or trying to disrupt the event. (btw, he was a really wierd looking guy. straight out of revenge of the nerds. but that's neither here nor there.) Basically Al pointed out that Saddam had never shook Bin Laden's hand, but he's shaken Rumsfeld's a number of times, including right after he gassed the Kurds. That Iraq was once U.S. sponsored. Then he pointed to the extreme incompetence of our leaders in executing the war (which made me cringe a little, having just read Yglesias and Rosenfeld article, 'the incompetence dodge.') And finally pointed out that we were right to go into Afghanistan, but we should have finished the job. As the guy was walking away Al thanked him for the question, which got some chuckles, but Al was quick to say "No, I'm not trying to be funny about that. I appreciate the question. It's important to talk to these people." (again, I'm paraphrasing)
After Q&A they had people line up to get books signed, but I took off at that point. Overall it was very enjoyable. I like Al a lot.
If anyone else was there I'd love to hear your thoughts.