I saw the kos poll today on the US Senate race in Minnesota, and noticed the overwhelming support for Al Franken. I'm a newspaper editor in a small town in Minnesota and I've had the opportunity to interview two of the candidates in this race, at length.. as in one to two hours, one on one.
One was Al Franken and the other was Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer. And if I've learned anything about the views of most folks on this forum over the past few years, I know this... if you knew these candidates like I know these candidates, today's poll would have been just as overwhelming, but in favor of Nelson-Pallmeyer.
Don't get me wrong, I like Al Franken. I've bought his books, I've enjoyed his satire, and I found him very personable. I will surely vote for him if he's the candidate the DFL chooses.
But this was the seat that would be Paul Wellstone's today if he hadn't died in that awful plane crash.
While Franken's comedy schtick has been outlandish at times, he's not a Wellstone by any means. He reminds me of the same kind of careful, calculating Democrat so many of us on this site constantly complain about.
Iraq War resolution? Nelson-Pallmeyer, who has made peace and justice his life's work, and now teaches it at St. Thomas University in St. Paul, was one of Wellstone's advisors who urged him to vote no even in the midst of a hotly-contested re-election campaign. Were Nelson-Pallmeyer in that position, there is no question how he would vote.
Nor is there any question how Franken would have voted. He'd have voted yes. He supported the war at the time. Said he was frightened by the attacks.
Franken acknowledges now that Bush misled us into war, but said he wouldn't support any impeachment effort. He acknowledges that Bush likely violated FISA and has run roughshod over the Constitution through signing statements, torture, and who knows what else. But, sorry, impeachment's off the table. Struck me as just another Dem all too willing to put the old gonads in a box when faced with a tough, principled decision.
The military budget is another killer for me. I'm sorry, but when I hear any Democrat talk about universal health care, major investment in new energy technology, or repairing our crumbling infrastructure, my first question is always: how do you pay for it when the Pentagon now sucks 60 cents of every discretionary dollar available in Washington?
Nelson-Pallmeyer totally understands that issue. He says until we get the military-industrial monster under control, there will be no progressive resurgence in this country. And he's absolutely right.
Franken's take? He might be willing to cut some Cold War weapons systems and look for some waste here and there, but he'd like to spend more on the Pentagon in other areas, mostly for vets, which I don't object to, but in the end, he doesn't get us where we need to go.
Is he better than Coleman? In a heartbeat. But is he the kind of candidate that should be drawing overwhelming support on dailykos? Not in a million years. Today's vote told me that there's a lot of folks out there who think they know Franken, but really don't. Too many Democrats have a view of Franken that's based on his books and his radio show and they think he's a fighting progressive. I haven't seen much sign of that.
I know some will say that Nelson-Pallmeyer isn't electable. There was a poll out today that showed Nelson-Pallmeyer wasn't polling very well in a match-up with Coleman. That poll was absolutely meaningless because Nelson-Pallmeyer has about zero name recognition right now. Franken's is about 100 percent. But that all changes in a high profile race. And one thing is for sure, when Democrats hear these guys, the guy they really fall in love with is Nelson-Pallmeyer.In their heart of hearts, he's the guy they'd go with, but they've been so engrained to see every race in terms of money raised and tough positions dodged, that running a strong, principled progressive scares the hell out of them. But Minnesota has long shown a willingness to vote for the real thing, not the poll-tested pol. Think Wellstone, or Ventura.
Or think Nelson-Pallmeyer.