The Schultz Report: Franken campaign setting itself up for a fall?

In this week’s edition of The Schultz Report [archive], we open by talking about the factors that contributed to the precipitous tumble in Hillary Clinton’s approval ratings in an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released yesterday (previous item), ranging from her ad hominem-laden campaign to the Bosnia “misstatement.”

David Schultz also discusses the Minnesota US Senate campaign in the wake of Sen. Norm Coleman’s re-election kickoff. The Hamline University political analyst says he takes seriously the poll data indicating that Al Franken faces a big challenge in winning over women voters. And he wonders whether the Franken campaign really understands what it needs to do in the race: “I think the Franken campaign is resting on several assumptions that may not pan out. One is their belief that … the Republicans and Coleman have already thrown out all the trash [about Franken]–they’ve already thrown all the bad stuff against our candidate already, and we’ve weathered them, so we don’t have to worry about that. Second, they say that Franken has tremendous support from labor unions and they’re going to help deliver us on election day. Third, they seem to believe there won’t be any problem in terms of capturing suburban soccer-mom votes, which are really critical for success.

“They’ve said, well, those issues just aren’t going to be important about our candidate,” he notes. “I just don’t think that’s realistic. Unions can’t deliver the way they used to. And second, when a lot of the criticism was coming out against Franken a few months ago, no one was listening. Nobody was paying attention to that. Now, as it gets closer to the election and the ads start to hit television… that’s going to hurt. I think the Franken campaign has underestimated the negativity he faces in the suburbs.  Having talked to people out in the Third District, Ramstad’s district–out in places like Plymouth, Maple Grove–they’re very concerned about how women are going to react to Franken’s candidacy. I just don’t think the Franken campaign is understanding that.”

“They’re pretty quick to dismiss at this point evidence suggesting that the candidate might have some weaknesses.”

The Schultz Report: Hillary tumbling; Franken stumbling? (12:03)

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