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[Johnny C]

Norm Coleman is a member of the United States Senate. He comes from the beautiful state of Minnesota. He is completely insane. Here is his smear campaign against his opponent, Al Franken, and also against logic, dignity and class, but I'll highlight the funniest ones I've watched so far.

He brought back hockey!
Al Franken joked about rape!
Norm Coleman has hired a child to talk to you about his campaign!
Bowlers hate cuss words and sexist jokes!

and the absolutely incredible

Al Franken Green Screen Conspiracy!

[Johnny C]

It's the music that puts me over the top in most of these. It's like something out of Mr. Show.

[Dimmukane]

I don't think Al Franken should be running for any kind of leadership position, but that IS a ridiculous smear campaign.  Almost zero mention of campaign platforms or promises, mostly stuff Perez Hilton talks about.

[RedLion]

I've heard he made some mistake with his advertising when he didn't include his likeness in it for at least 2 seconds. It could cost him up to 1 million dollars...just read about it today in fact! Think anything'll come of it?

[Alex C]

Oh my god, I'm unfortunate enough to be a Minnesotan, so I've been exposed to this shit fairly regularly for a while now. I'm no big fan of Al Franken, but I can't tell you how badly that bowler commercial irritates me. It's almost Pavlovian in its ability to illicit anger in me. It's smug, arrogant, and filled with that disingenuous folksy charm American politicians love so much. Remember how I said I couldn't stand John Edwards because he sets off my bullshit detectors so easily? These commercials are only like, a billion times worse.

God, so angry. Give me a second.

I'll admit to never having liked Norm Coleman. I think the guy's a career political opportunist. Since he was once a Democrat, he occasionally likes to paint himself as a progressive moderate despite having no real claim to such a title. He's been a pro lifer for as long as I can remember, openly favors de facto privatization of social security, pledged to support an anti-gay marriage amendment and has consistently voted in favor of Bush's favorite pet proposals, despite claiming to be a "fiscal conservative." Shit, he's got an "A" grade from the NRA, agreed that waterboarding is a form of torture (but doesn't oppose it!), and supports the idea of a border fence. All this, and he still has the balls to posture as a moderate! WTF?!

So yeah, I've never liked Norm Coleman. The ads have really just sealed it for me.

[Barmymoo]

Holy shit those adverts were real?  I thought they were a spoof. You'd heard he'd made SOME mistakes?

[BrittanyMarie]

I keep seeing bumper stickers with "What Would Wellstone Do?" If only you could bring Paulie back to life.

[tragic_pizza]

The bowling guy appears to need emergency hemmorhoid surgery.

Being in Alabama, it takes an extraordinary level of crassness and bald stupidity to get my attention. The green-screen one comes close.

[Cartilage Head]

 I love the part where they put Franken down for liking his coffee a specific way. Those liberals are just so complicated when it comes to coffee.

[KharBevNor]

Interesting, once you run these videos through a bullshit filter, you just get this Norm Coleman guy screaming about "Goddamn baby-murdering new york Jews".

Wow!

[Dimmukane]

Fuck, man.  I don't even like coffee.  I should run for office.

[BrittanyMarie]

I dunno man, I drink my coffee black most of the time at the office and I'm pretty sure it's seen as more professional and serious. And anyway, the point isn't the coffee, the point is excess and probably a bit of haughtiness or pretension.

I mean, there are totally prejudices about those who like their coffee black and those who like their drinks extra fancy, same as prejudices people have about those who on to higher education vs those who don't, same as those who work manual labor vs those who are in a white-collar environment. 

Anyway, the first time Coleman won it was against the former VP Walter Mondale. And Mondale lost. Obviously Coleman has got some chops in the election business.

[Johnny C]

It just occurred to me that I spent the summer doing manual labour.

I am a blue collar worker.

I am this guy's audience.

[valley_parade]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_hvPbW0jsw&NR=1

That mother fucker BROUGHT HOCKEY BACK.

[Alex C]

Anyway, the first time Coleman won it was against the former VP Walter Mondale. And Mondale lost. Obviously Coleman has got some chops in the election business.

That's a bit misleading; Coleman's election really just showed how strongly Minnesota is split along partisan lines. Coleman had been running a competitive race against the incumbent, Paul Wellstone, but was starting to fall behind on the polls when Wellstone tragically died in a plane crash less than two weeks before the election. Mondale was a 74 year old man who stepped up for the sake of the party, and hadn't been visibly active in Minnesota regional politics since the late '70s. Despite this, he still managed to get 47% of the vote. It was an extremely divisive election from the word go, since Wellstone was one of the most consistently liberal figures in the senate and had recently made some very unpopular decisions, while Coleman had the open support of the Bush administration. That said, I'm not entirely convinced Norm could have defeated Zombie Wellstone had the state been hit by some voodoo/space radiation before election day.

[BrittanyMarie]

Knowing Minnesotans, they woulda voted zombie for the lulz. You do have me on the misleading front too, sorry about that.

I think it'll be interesting looking at states like MN in the future, where the republican/democrat lines run pretty smoothly with rural/urban demographics. People have been consistently getting out of the rural areas and getting into cities--will that start changing the way MN votes? One of my state legislators recently said that here, at least, it is not conservative interests vs liberal interests so much as it is urban and rural competing, and we're right next door.

[RedLion]

Brittany, what state are you in? I'm in WI, and it's largely the same here.

[Liz]

Brittany is in North Dakota just like me. We are going to be gig buddies tomorrow night!

[Alex C]

I totally would have voted for a Zombie Wellstone. Just think of the ad campaign.

"As a compassionate corpse and leader within the United States Senate, Zombie Wellstone voted yes on initiatives that brought better education to our economically disadvantaged undead."