In the main atrium of the downtown Minneapolis library, Norm Coleman beams at passersby — from the cover of ”Shared Vision: Norm Coleman and the Remarkable Revitalization of St. Paul.” The 2001 hagiography currently has pride of place in the Friends of the Library shop window. Price? Two dollars. Coleman quotes on miracles, persistence and good karma? Priceless.

The cover shows then-St. Paul Mayor Coleman in a dark suit with a flag pin on the lapel, in front of a blurred-out background that has to be the inside of the Xcel Center. Whether he’s looking sexier than any other U.S. Senator or a gold bust of Vladimir Putin, as one blogger later attested, is a matter of personal taste.

Here are the Coleman quotes, mostly from a last-chapter Q&A, with text bolded to emphasize ties to Coleman’s actions and strategy in contesting Al Franken’s 312-vote victory in the election for U.S. Senate:

On miracles:

David Ben Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel, said, “Anyone who does not believe in miracles is not a realist.” I believe in miracles. I’m a realist.

On persistence:

We would have come up with another idea [if people hadn't shown up for a concert on the Mississippi River]. We would have brought them down the next week for something else. You have to believe in the vision and stay with it. Individual things don’t always work out. If one door shuts, you walk around and try another one, until you find one that works.

On smoke and mirrors:

[The deal for a National Hockey League franchise] was so unlikely, you almost had to laugh. At times, we were bluffing. We put together an ownership group and submitted an application to the NHL — and we didn’t have a firm dollar commitment from anybody. We didn’t have the money for a deposit. We didn’t have a lead investor until the day we actually needed one. Along the way, there was a lot of smoke and mirrors, but we knew we had the right vision, we knew it would be good for St. Paul.

On karma:

Maybe it’s my 1960s “good karma” thing that still floats out there, but I believe that the arts appeal to the better angels in people.

The book’s listed editor, publisher and (from what I could tell) author is Tom Mason, a marketing exec who earlier served as Sen. Rudy Boschwitz’s press secretary and still does Q&As with people like Republican rainmaker Jeff Larson, a longtime Coleman associate and the former Senator’s Washington, D.C. landlord.

KATIE COURIC:Have you ever been involved with any negotiations with the Russians?

SARAH PALIN: We have trade missions back and forth. We do. It’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia, as Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America, where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out [sic] to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to our state.

That excerpt notwithstanding, no transcript could do justice to this brief, bizarre exchange from Sarah Palin’s second TV interview as John McCain’s running mate. You have to watch.