Seriously.

Here’s hoping Barack Obama sees this video.

29 replies on “Al Franken For President”

  1. You call that an angry crowd? If people were that civil everywhere we’d have had good healthcare reform 50 years ago. Of course if that is what we call an angry crowd then we must be Switzerland.

    The problem is not that we need a better president or better senators. We need better Americans.

  4. Election night in 2012 is going to be a sucky night: wonder how many electoral votes Obama will loose the election by. I think it’ll be by 100 at this point.

  6. elenchos – I got the sense from the description on the youtube page that before the video started, the crowd may have been much angrier and much more confrontational. But, you’re right, they seemed pretty nice (Minnesota nice?) in the video itself.

  9. Around the 7:15 mark, he comes close to biting a man’s head off. And he’d be justified. It must be extremely difficult to talk to ignorant fucks as if they’re equals.

    Franken’s impressive.

  10. It doesn’t surprise me at all that the most civil, meaningful Q&A/discussion (that I’ve seen so far) is not going on on TV, or in congress, or in an official town hall meeting.

    thanks Al for being knowledgeable (and keeping your feet planted on the ground) and thanks Minnesotans for asking real questions and listening to the answer. If only everyone acted this nicely. I can’t even get into debates about it anymore because it just gets too heated for any meaningful discussion.

  12. I thought the most interesting, relevant thing he said was at the end there about how Minnesota doesn’t have for-profit insurance companies and, as a result, 91% of dollars going to the insurance companies go to health care, vs 70-80% in other parts of the country. I’d need to look into those numbers, but that was actually a pretty good thing to say to a group of Minnesotans.

    Anyways, so refreshing to see an actual conversation. Even the crowd questions (except for the “is that where they have a lot of immigrants guy”) were pretty rational.

  14. the immigrants guy is an important character in this debate. there are a number of people who think the problem with “socialized health care” would be the “lazy” poor and “illegal” immigrants who just want to take adavntage of our system. at some point, this type of person will need to have that question answered.

    despite that, i do like that franken did not get distracted by the immigrant question in this context. he simply pointed out that there is another town with a similar ratio of immigrants with better care and lower costs, to the variable accounting for the difference is likely not the immigrants. not getting distracted on a tangent was a bright move.

    this crowd did seem more rational then some of the other videos we’ve seen though. and franken’s answer to the cost question was good, and delivered well, but not altogether convincing to someone who already has a “good” plan and fears higher rates and worse coverage (dr availability). still, a very impressive performance. and yes, we will be seeing more of franken the politician in the future.

  15. One of the things I love about Slog Hipsters is their totally pulled-out-of-the-ass predictions.

    They’re never right, of course, but no one ever holds them to it, because no one cares what hipsters think. If anyone did, they wouldn’t be hipsters: They’d have jobs and careers and families.

  17. Easy there, #15. Your lifetime of rejection by the kids at the ‘cool table’ is showing.

    Love Franken. Loved his level response to the anti-immigrant doofus.

  18. Franken should’ve just told that bitch in the stretch cotton shirt to fuck off. But that’s probably why I couldn’t get involved in politics.

  21. I thought it was awfully nice for the older woman up front to rise from the dead to attend this dialogue. Now THAT’S what I call a pre-existing condition!

  23. “Are you gonna vote how the people who voted for you want or how Obama wants?”

    Lady. I voted for Franken, and I know many others who did. Most of us are in favor of government health care. I certainly wouldn’t mind.

  24. BTW so glad I live in Rochester. Mayo isn’t the only good, affordable health care in town. I was at Mayo, and now I’m at Olmsted Medical Center, and I love the place. Really, our health care is probably the only reason to stay in Roch, and it’s a good enough one. Still, it helps to have insurance.

  25. @4 Sarah Palin will carry 45-50 states. This Marxist Homosexual fool in the White House is toast.

    That is, if the election is allowed to take place. You never know with The Dear Leader.

  28. I supported Senator Franken from day one, I worked as hard for him as I could figure out, I waited (albeit impatiently) for him to finally become my Senator, and this is why. I am proud as hell to be represented by him. And proud of Minnesota!

  29. I was listening to Minnesota Public Radio on my way to work yesterday and heard an interview from the fair where Fraken was talking about this. Obviously this isn’t the WHOLE talk he had with the TEA party folks. It was also MPR day at the fair that day. Kind of makes me proud to be Minnesotan. (Also why did I have to come to SLOG of all places to freaking find out that there was a youtube of it)

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