The Second Congressional District of the Minnesota DFL held a debate for the Senatorial candidate Saturday Nov 10, 2007 in Prior Lake. These debates have been barely covered in the commercial media, so I arranged to have someone with a quality video camera to record the events.
The Second District is represented in Congress by John Klein, a loyal Bushie whose claim to fame is that he carried the nuclear “football” for many years. Geographically, it includes the southern suburbs of the twin cities and near-rural counties. There are parts that have been reliably Republican since the Civil War. Second District DFLers are not at all like the confident yuppies of South Minneapolis who overwhelmingly sent a Black Muslim named Keith Ellison to congress. They are timid and defensive and hyperpatriotic.
All four candidates showed. Franken has missed a few of these events. I am not clear as to the reasons his campaign has chosen to sit a few out, but as the footage shows, debates are not his strength. He would much rather stage shows where he is the master of ceremonies. But his campaign had been told in no uncertain terms that he could not miss this debate. So even though he had spent the day appearing with former Senator and New School President Bob Kerry, he did make it.
The cast of characters
The links are to Youtube clips. Yes I know how to embed clips but the poster frame is usually so pixilated, I thought this method would be better. The candidate's names link to a Youtube clip that contains their opening and closing statements.
Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer
Jack was the hands-down winner of this debate. He is handsome, tall, very bright, well-read, and well traveled. He has written twelve SERIOUS books. The Wellstone crowd is damn near swooning (I saw some of them smiling who haven’t smiled at a political event since Wellstone’s funeral.) Nelson-Pallmeyer is on the verge of becoming a genuine political phenomenon. He could easily sweep up the party progressives leaving Franken and Ciresi to fight over the blue dogs and other party conservatives.
Mike Ciresi
This, ladies and gentlemen, is arguably the finest trial lawyer in the land. If you want a Senator who has used the law to diminish the power of large corporations, this is your man. He sits on dozens of boards of non-profits and foundations. He shows only a few flashes of his legendary courtroom prowess in this debate, but since he is so well known by the party regulars, his debate performances don’t matter that much.
Al Franken
The good news for Franken supporters is that he is doing better in a debate setting. The bad news is that he is still third in a field of four. Franken relies heavily on Washington based consultants and it shows—virtually everything out of his mouth sounds DLC-approved. Not surprisingly, he is the funniest guy in almost any setting but certainly this one.
Jim Cohen
Jim has a long history of legally representing otherwise powerless activist groups. He is genuinely a nice guy. His stump speeches are just awful, however, and he can debate for long periods of time without answering a question or making a point.
The NASA question
I have included the answers to only one question because, quite honestly, the moderator’s choice of questions was very lame. Thankfully, the candidates chose not to answer most of them and launched into similar issues. This question about NASA funding got some especially good responses—Franken opined on the Bush war on science, Cerisi talked about the misuse of scientific evidence by the tobacco companies in the courts of law, and Nelson-Pallmeyer brought up the issue of how USA was absolutely alone in the community of nations in its desire to militarize space. I have included Al Franken’s congratulations of Nelson-Pallmeyer’s answer at the end of the clip. (This what is happening in the picture. Also note the woman on the left of the picture. She is one of Franken's handlers--shows what a big-bucks campaign can afford.) It was a classy move on Al’s part that also showed that he understands how good Jack is as a debater.
Jack meets his admirers
This clip shows some of the reactions to Nelson-Pallmeyer after the debate. Two are especially telling. One is of a guy who brings up the name of Eugene McCarthy—a bit of Minnesota shorthand that says, “I am an antiwar progressive and have been like this for a LONG time.” The other is of an attractive middle-aged woman who has been so moved by Jack’s political positions that it appears she may have been crying. Political followings don’t get much more reliable than that.