On Minnesota Public Radio this morning. For months the narrative has been that Norm Coleman is ahead by a few points and that Al Franken is too much of a clown to win.
Well, it seems that might not be the case.
Al Franken | 41% |
Norm Coleman | 40% |
Dean Barkley (I) | 8% |
That sounds like it's pretty much tied, right?
Well, MPR is trying to push the Franken-is-in-trouble narrative. (Why, I don't know). Frankly, Coleman has 46% approval, which sounds — not very good. Such as:
In addition to not owning any of the major issues, [Cook Political Report's Jennifer] Duffy said Franken should be concerned that almost half of Minnesotans think he's too liberal.
How is that a problem? With nearly any candidate, half the people will think he's too liberal. And half will think he's too conservative.
Franken has room to pull together his base — he's only attracting 70% of Democrats. Plus, Barack should have long coattails here (don't believe what you hear about the race being tied, he won the primary 2-1 and recent polls have had him up 10%). For a challenger to a sitting senator, it actually looks pretty good.
And as Franken says: "I am the only New York Jew in the race that is actually from Minnesota".
Every one of Coleman's ads in his thick New York accent can't help. I've been here four years and I've learned to speak Minnesohtan — not Norm...