<annoyed grunt>

this went from Tossup to Safe Republican.

Hell I'd bet Ventura now has a better chance to win than Franken.

I heard on NPR a report on this race.

They had some "supposed" democrats who were commenting they were just SOOOOOOO upset at things Fraken had said in his comedy days.

I swear, I think Lake Woebegon really exists, these dour Minnesotians.

I also suspect a little anti-semitic thing going on here as well? Fraken;s humor is probably a little too Jewish for these folks.

Good thing George Carlin or Lenny Bruce never ran for public office, cause the concept of "humor" and "aatire" is just foreign to a large chunk of the population

He's a suprisingly impressive guy.  I think that he would be far better than Coleman who is a weak flip flopping two faced fraud.    I believe that Ventura is a practical guy who understands the folly of the war in Iraq and who also is open to making changes that we need.  

That said, I am pulling for Al Franken, but I would be less upset with a Ventura win than I would w/Coleman.

Franken is a not a good candidate and probally shouldn't have run.    
Coleman is weak.  The MN conservatives don't trust him while the dems hate him.

Ventura could win.  If he does, I'll bet he caucuses with the Dems.

this morning; Ventura said he wouldn't make a decision until next Tuesday, but his comments later in the interview made it very explicit that he's running.

Oh fucking FUCK.  Jesse you asshole.

I don't think this reduces Franken's chances (though they're still not great).  He was well on course to lose the two-person race (indies were backing Coleman by 2-1).  Ventura draws equally from both (you'll notice in this poll Franken's losing margin only goes down one point).  Think Ventura has a better chance, actually, of ripping Coleman a new one for his support for Bush, the war, etc.

Franken's best (and possibly last) chance is to eek out a victory by mobilizing the party base.  Think his chances to do this, btw, depend more upon other politicians (eg. Obama) coming to MN and making the case that the Dems need the extra vote in the Senate.  The he has to pray.

If Ventura can pull voters away from Coleman, and Franken can ride coattails, he could still win.  Looking at this race w/o much knowledge of MN politics, but am I correct that Franken's biggest problem right now is that there are many voters who simply don't like him all that much (think he's a flaky elitist)?  

1. Apparently, Ventura isn't completely in after all.

2. Rasmussen has just reported a poll on their front page for this, but the actual poll was conducted and reported last month. But since this diary isn't mentioning it, their numbers were 48-45 Coleman, or 39-32-24 (C/F/V)

Cripes, look at the cited poll:

A recent state poll has Coleman leading with 52 percent of the vote and Franken with 40 percent.

A hypothetical race with Ventura shows Coleman with 41 percent, Franken with 31 percent and Ventura with 23 percent.

Franken was losing by 12 before, now he's losing by 10.  Do you really think that Ventura will concentrate on tearing up Franken, whose weakness is that he's in the entertainment industry?  Ventura can't and won't hit him on that.  He will, however, rip apart Coleman for being a raging hypocrite who has been Bush's lapdog for years.  All those things that Democrats should say to Republicans but don't because they're candy-assed fraidy cats?  Ventura will go there.

You guys are like Chicken Little, saying that the sky is falling.  I guarantee you that this is a good development.  Ventura will either tear down Coleman enough for Franken's base Democratic support to pull ahead (if he can run a good campaign between now and then), or Jesse'll take the whole thing.

Ventura in the Senate would be solid gold, and a decent enough consolation prize for not getting Franken in there.  

This is now Franken's to lose, basically.  He runs a good campaign, I think he'll win.

Ventura could win, but I doubt he will. The main reason why he didn't run again for governor is that he knew he was going to lose. Jesse's heart is in the right place, but he is so stupid when it comes to everything else. You don't have to put "Media Jackels" on the press passes. You don't have to moonlight as a WWE referee while you are governor. You don't have to put your foot in your mouth at every opportunity. But you do.

Norm's the slickest empty suit politician that Minnesota has had in awhile, but Ventura already beat him once. I think that Ventura has a greater ability to take Norm apart than Franken, because apparently Minnesotans don't want satirists to be their Senators. Ventura can go after Norm's many hypocrisies in a much more effective way, without Norm calling out the concern police everytime he perceives he is being personally attack(he does this better than anyone I have seen up there). I don't know how many debates are planned but there will be a lot of double attacks against Norm, and it could become quite funny. Norm will pull out the old victim card, but will only get him sympathy from the big empty house suburbans and pro-lifer rural folks- constituencies he already has fooled.

I just heard Jesse on the 11:00 am news say that he was speaking hypothetically about a run. He did ask who (Ventura, Franken, Coleman) people would rather have in a dark alley with them. Uh, not any of them.

I'm really pissed at Franken right now for being so weak. Maybe Jesse is as well.