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No Running Jokes Here
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Candidate
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| Contributor | RP |
| Last Edited | RP Dec 17, 2007 01:55pm |
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| Category | Profile |
| Media | Newspaper - Washington Post |
| News Date | Monday, December 17, 2007 07:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Franken doesn't want to be funny these days, not really funny. Wit has its place in politics, he says, and people always like a laugh. But funny can be a distraction from the serious stuff Franken is trying to talk about, such as veterans' health care, global warming, his opposition to the war in Iraq, etc. Besides, Franken has always had funny. What he needs, as a candidate, is gravitas.
So after a lifetime of making people laugh, Franken tries to sound deadly earnest -- even, in truth, a little ponderous at times -- as he seeks the Democratic nomination in Minnesota, his home state. Since February, when he announced his candidacy, he's been crisscrossing the state in a hybrid SUV, speaking at dozens of spaghetti dinners, picnics and meet-and-greets, all with a singular mission: To convince people that his evolution from wacky satirist to talk-radio pundit to serious statesman is real and complete.
Franken says later that he decided to run because he's "worried" about the country; because he's tired of George Bush; and because he doesn't like Norm Coleman, the Republican incumbent. Franken can sound especially bitter when he's talking about the senator. Coleman won the seat in 2002 after Democrat Paul Wellstone -- Franken's political hero -- died in a plane crash 10 days before the election, and Franken and Democrats haven't quite gotten over it during the past six years. "He's George Bush's number-one enabler," Franken declares. |
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