Comments on: Franken on Specter in ‘96: ‘Hopeless’

By: threegoal

threegoal — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:02:53 +0000

Franken gets credit for foreseeing Lieberman as the 2000 Democratic nominee for VP before Gore even knew it. “Why Not Me?” is a really funny book.

Franken wins the nomination due to a campaign based on eliminating ATM fees and a lot of dirty tricks against Gore. And then he creams Gingrich. Then all goes to hell.

By: Ralph Kramden

Ralph Kramden — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:27:47 +0000

@Paul – it’s a reference to “Why Not Me?” a 1999 book in which Al Franken runs for President, and chooses Lieberman as his running mate.

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:40:09 +0000

Yeah, Franken/Lieberman, that was a kickass senatorial ticket.

Uh… what?

By: Ralph Kramden

Ralph Kramden — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:13:30 +0000

I think your headline is grossly misleading. Nowhere does Franken label Specter himself as “hopeless”.

Seems to me Franken is ridiculing the Republicans a lot more than Specter in that excerpt. As a matter of fact, what Franken seems to be saying is that Specter doesn’t fit in the Republican party, an observation that looks more than a little prescient now. “Hopeless” summed up Specter’s chances of leading the Republican ticket perfectly, no?

But let’s not forget that Al’s taste in Senators is suspect, given that he chose *Lieberman* as his running mate, in the interest of ticket balance (Al is reform, Joe is orthodox).