It's been an intense summer and fall in Minnesota, as Republican incumbent Norm Coleman tries to use everything he can come up with to fend off Democratic challenger Al Franken. Given Franken's past as a satirist for SNL and as an author of many sharp books criticizing conservatives, Republicans in general have been trying to dig up anything close to a character flaw in Franken and hope the old technique of repeated distortions becoming accepted truth will stick.
Here's the good news, according to today's Minneapolis Star Tribune:
DFL U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken has moved into his first solid lead over incumbent Republican Norm Coleman, according to a new Star Tribune Minnesota Poll.
The survey, conducted Tuesday through Thursday by Princeton Survey Research Associates International among 1,084 likely Minnesota voters, shows Franken leading Coleman 43 to 34 percent.
As I'm guessing many of you remember, Norm was on his way to defeat six years ago when our country lost the most inspirational progressive voice I had heard in years, Sen. Paul Wellstone. In the whirlwind chaos that followed the tragic loss of Sen. Wellstone, Norm managed to lay low while conservatives spun Wellstone's touching memorial service into an event of alleged political propaganda.
Norm has managed to lay low for six years now, taking little initiative to do anything of use but certainly happy to take credit when it seems to suit him. He missed his chance to investigate the grossly mismanaged funds in Iraq, and he has fiscally been in lockstep with the failed policies of the Bush administration. In a word, he's been a disaster.
Nothing further proves that he has no redeeming merit to stand on than his dependency on negative advertising against his rival. Luckily Minnesotans have had enough. Again from the Star Tribune:
The new poll suggests that one reason for Franken’s gain is voters’ reaction to the abrasive advertising in the campaign.
The survey shows that 56 percent of poll respondents consider ads criticizing Franken to be "mostly unfair personal attacks."
This is the same strategy that McCain is clinging to at the national level, and the results are proving to backfire there just as badly. This is truly turning into a top-down rejection of all the crap the last eight years have wrought!