The recent Al Franken – Norm Coleman vote recount in Minnesota reminds me of just how annoyed I get with the politics surrounding our current voting system. We witness the……

It will just be more entertainment value for the rest of the country. Like IL.

Hey democrats! Remember your mantra of selected, not elected? What say you now!

Perhaps Minnesota would be better off with the runoff rule that Georgia has, in which any statewide election has to be decided by 50% plus one vote, or the two top vote-getters meet in a run-off election.

Agreed Ed, but you need to present it as a bailout for newspapers and media if you want it passed. Many millions were spent on campaign ads in Saxby’s Georgia runoff.

Gangel: “And even though he lacks political experience, Franken is confident. You have run for political office before.”

Franken: “In junior high.”

Gangel: “Did you win?”

Franken: “I won once, I lost once.”

Gangel: “What is your-”

Franken: “So I know what each are like.”

Gangel: “But when you are going for the U.S. Senate, is that not a big leap?”

Franken: “I suppose so but I, I’m certain I can do this and I’m certain I can do a better job than, than the guys there now.”

Gangel: “What some people may not know, Franken is smart, Harvard smart. A math whiz who aced the SATs and it turns out not bad at geography, either.”

Franken: “It’s a circus trick. I can draw all 48 contiguous states from memory in about two minutes.”

Gangel: “But Franken knows in the end he’ll need substance to win over Minnesota voters.

Gangel: Gimme your top three priorities. First three things you’d do in the U.S. Senate.”

Franken: “Three? Universal health care, whole different energy policy, work to restore our standing in the world. Work to restore the American standing in the world.”

Gangel: “The question now, can he win? He gives himself better than even odds. And if you don’t win?”

Franken: “I’ll sue. No, if I don’t win, I don’t win.”

Gangel: “Meredith this is just the primary but Franken has raised more than $1.3 million. Remember this is the state that elected professional wrestler Jesse Ventura governor. Stranger things have happened. A lot of people think Franken can win this race. Meredith.”

Vieira: “He’s definitely smart enough. Jamie, thank you so much.”

Coleman would have easily won a runoff, as Chambliss did in Georgia, but absent that it’s going to be Senator Franken Beans. The new face of the Democratic Party. You think Reid and Dodd are proud Democrats right now with this idiot in their midst? They are going to try to keep this guy under wraps. Good luck with that!

EMD on January 5, 2009 at 10:55 AM

YOU. DON’T. GET IT! Franken will be the biggest ass in the Senate, but that won’t stop the MSM from trying to cover him!

If you know about Franken’s well-known, fully-documented anger control problems, the fact that he’s written “satire” that is more sexist and politically incorrect than anything that’s gotten Rush Limbaugh pilloried on the national news, and that the bestselling books he “wrote” (with a large crew of volunteer researchers) still got loads of schtuff dead wrong, you didn’t find out from your local Drive-By drones. They’re too busy talking about how smart he must be because he is a Harvard graduate (Class of ‘73) and can draw a map of the continental U.S. from memory.

Compared with the accomplished tasks of portraying Fannie and Freddie villains Chris Dodd and Bawney Fwank into fiscally responsible heroes, keeping Franken’s mean streak “under wraps” is nothing for the pukes in the news.

It is a sad day.

dmann on January 5, 2009 at 2:13 PM

+100

Learn to embrace the suck.

Maybe they can get Sylvester Stallone to run in Pennsylvania in 2010. There’s already a statue of him at the Philadelphia Art Museum.

Tom_Shipley on January 5, 2009 at 10:42 AM

Holy Bleep!!! This is the typical moron in MN, he actualy thinks Franken IS qualified and SHOULD be elected!!!

Oh-My-GOD!

/facepalm

i hope pawlenty realizes his invisible man act has absolutely TORPEDOED his chances for any natl. gop office.
Buckaroo on January 5, 2009 at 12:39 PM

In Pawlenty’s defense, the fix was in at the local level, which is where I think the ballot stuffing and hijinks occurred. If the local election officials say “oops, forgot about these extra ballots,” there is only so much you can do about it. Do you reject the extra ballots, in which case you are potentially disregarding valid votes? Or do you accept them, in which case you are potentially accepting fraudulent votes? There is no clear answer.

Remember Stalin’s rule: “It’s not the vote that counts, but who counts the votes.” ***
newton on January 5, 2009 at 12:48 PM

I wish HotAir would commission a study to look back over the past 20 years at any election decided by (1) less than 1.5% of the votes and/or (2) a recount. Let’s look at the party affiliations of: (a) who won the initial popular vote count, (b) who won the recount, if any; (c) who was the sec state or election official involved. Theoretically, if there is no funny business, Republicans should win close contests just as frequently as Democrats. I suspect we’ll find that the Democrats win these “really close races” by wide margins. If you do enough statistical controls, you can pretty much prove endemic voter fraud by such a study.

The only bright spot I see is that by the time the Republicans regain a majority in the Senate, a solid majority of the public will oppose the social con anti-gay marriage insanity. Progress on that minor issue is not enough to make me feel despair over the socialist and pacifist evils that are going to be inflicted on this nation over the next four years.

thuja on January 5, 2009 at 12:05 PM

Yep total insanity! I mean there is absolutely no way that the vast majority of the human race over the last 2,000 years could have gotten it right. We are so lucky we have Thuja here to point us in the right direction.

As for MN… Remember Stalin’s rule: “It’s not the vote that counts, but who counts the votes.” Let’s look at who the Secs of State are in those states that went Dem this past year. Look at their funding for their election campaigns. Any hint or whiff of George Soros should be exposed to sunlight… the best disinfectant.

… I’ve believed that Al Franken is certifiable for quite some time now. But not as a U.S. Senator. ……

/which, perhaps, is in the end quite the blessing …