I'm good enough, I'm smart enough...

So there is some disagreement over the spectre of an Al Franken candidacy against Norm Coleman. Some people think that it would be great, others less so. I'm in the latter camp, although I didn't explain why.

Like I said before, I think Al Franken is quite funny. I have several of his books, I like his comedy, and I think he is good at what he does (since I never listen to his radio show on Air America, I can't really comment on that). But running for senate? That's not something I think I can agree with.

Yes, Jesse Ventura and Arnold won, as Luke points out in comments. However, as Chris said also in comments, Jesse and Arnold are completely different, and this is the truth. Jesse "ain't got time to bleed." Arnold talked about "terminating" the deficit and said that his opponents were "girlie-men." There is a certain segment of the population that laps up this tough-guy crap. After all, they were pretty successful movie actors; somebody was buying tickets to those things. Al Franken is not one of those people. Maybe there is a segment of the population that likes Stuart Smalley; even if there is, it's far smaller than that "other" segment of the population (nobody went and bought tickets to Al Franken's movie. I just don't see voters in Brooklyn Park and Coon Rapids coming out and voting for Franken to prove a point like they did for Jesse, and there isn't anybody who will seriously argue differently.

Second, I hate it when parties draft or agitate for candidates that are famous. Especially if they don't have a long track record in politics. To me, all this does is scream out "Hey, everybody! Our party is so bereft of talent that we have to get a big-name candidate because we don't have anybody else!" Some people may argue that Franken does not fall into this category because he does have a history of political activism. He does and he doesn't. Yes, he's been attacking Republicans and conservatives for a while, but only recently has that led to a concerted effort on his part to campaign for Democrats. More importantly, this political activism is by and large not in Minnesota. He has moved here, yes, but that's a recent development. While it may not be entirely accurate to say that Franken is a liberal Hollywood carpetbagger, that's not going to stop Republicans from saying so anyway.

Norm Coleman is a spineless blob out there who doesn't seem to have any principles to speak of, except for maybe "Watch out for number one." I think the candidate that could best campaign against Norm is a strong candidate that can clearly articulate his or her values and point out that they match the values of the vast majority of Minnesotans, as opposed to Norm whose values change depending on the weather and the polls. Franken has his strengths, but I don't see him running this kind of campaign. Can his beliefs and values connect with the voters? I'm pretty unsure of that.

It would be a mistake to ignore the positives of a Franken campaign. Of course, such a campaign would instantly be high-profile, making it probably one of the top tier races to go along with the presidential campaign. Along with that comes the money: a high-profile campaign like this would undoubtedly bring in a lot of money, for both sides. There would be no danger of Franken's message getting lost in the noise.

However, I think there are a lot of good Democratic candidates out there who could run a very good race against Norm and win, and do it by running a good campaign that connects with voters. Sure, it may not draw the attention and money that a Franken campaign could draw, but star power is not all there is to winning office.

As great a comedian and writer Franken is, he definitely has not sold me on Franken the candidate. Maybe in a few years if he shows that he is serious about settling in Minnesota and getting involved in the political scene from the ground up. I think Minnesota is still a place where voters want to see a candidate come in and earn their votes, instead of buying them.