The national media can’t get enough of Al Franken. Today the New York Sun focuses on his candidacy, diagnosing the senate contender’s struggles as stemming from his years spent in the Big Apple. "Less than three months before Election Day, … the Republican seat held by a former New Yorker, Norm Coleman, looks safer than ever, and Mr. Franken’s hopes could be doomed by his own New York past," reporter Russell Berman writes.

Meanwhile the National Journal notes that Franken is now being attacked from both sides, focusing on the recent negative ad run by Democratic challenger Priscilla Lord Faris (and subsequently adopted by the Coleman campaign). Strangely Lord Faris expresses regret for producing the attack spot. "I just didn’t like the tone," she told the National Journal. "I’m looking to change the tone to be a little more positive." She added, "In the meantime, Coleman takes it. I was pretty disappointed by that because I had pulled it."

(Some good news for Franken: Lord Faris is proving a little too dim and naive to be taken seriously as a contender.)

But the most intriguing (and sympathetic) take on Franken comes from Time magazine. Reporter Joel Stein appears to have been seduced by Franni Franken’s sandwiches. Here’s the nut:

If running for Senate were an Olympic event, Franken would win. If it were a battle of wills or a name-recognition poll or some kind of nerdy trivia battle, he’d win those too. Even if it were just a question of having people agree with your policies, he’d win a Senate seat in the state, where Barack Obama is ahead of John McCain. But getting elected means making people believe you can relate to them, and that’s why Franken—writer, actor, comedian, talk-show host and longtime denizen of Saturday Night Live—is running behind Republican Senator Norm Coleman.

Stein also elicits some interesting quotes from Franken. On the need to strip out some of his satirical instincts while on the campaign trail: "We have to do everything so people understand that this is a real campaign and not just a conceptual-art piece." And on the the ceaseless money hunt: "I don’t mind calling people for money. I mind asking people for money for five hours in a row. It drives me crazy."

(Photo courtesy of cursedthing.)