I was going to say that I'm not angry about Franken being declared the winner of the US Senate race in Minnesota, but right off the bat he has seriously pissed me off. The SOB's press conference is preempting Jeopardy right now.
What a freaking asshole.
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Ok, to be fair to old Al, he kept it short, so it was only a five minute loss of Jeopardy time. What I was going to write before was that the words "Senator Al Franken" do not seem as horrifying today as they did in early November. I'm still disappointed, but I think most of us were resigned to it ending up this way.
Politics aside, I think Franken is a nasty and boorish little man. I don't think he reflects the temperament of most Minnesotans, and that will become obvious after he takes his seat. That he garnered just barely over 50% of the vote in a year where Obama's coattail effect was so strong was telling I think. I'll bet he only has a hardcore base of about 30% and it won't take him long to start alienating the rest. My prediction: One-term wonder.
I suspect that Coleman did get the shaft in the way the recount was handled, but in any election of this scale(2.4 million votes) that comes down to 312 votes, the loser will always have a case for that. No system is going to be that perfect. I'm not sure what the solution is to close cases like this or even if there is a better one than what we have already.
The cynic in me dryly notes though, that the biggest lesson from the whole recount drama is that when people say "every vote must be counted," what they really mean is "every vote must be counted until the result I want is reached."
Interrupting Jeopardy! is unforgivable.
Posted by: Kate P | July 01, 2009 at 12:20 AM
I know Kate, what were they thinking? In this area, you hold the press conference at 4:00 P.M. and keep it to under a half hour...no Jeopardy clash and still plenty of time to get on the 5:00 P.M. and 6:00 P.M. news. That's just rank amateur stuff. ;)
Posted by: Dave E. | July 01, 2009 at 12:37 AM