MN-Sen: Fantastic Ads

by Josh Nelson :: Filed Under Blue Heroes '08, Elections 2008 :: January 17th, 2008 @ 5:37 am EST

As I mentioned yesterday, Al Franken has released his first two campaign ads statewide. One of the ads in particular, “Mrs. Molin”, is getting some positive attention:

“I sometimes wonder why political ads are so rarely clever the way, you know, real ads are. Al Franken, naturally enough, is shaking things up.” - Matt Yglesias“ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s hard for me to believe that the same people who elected Paul Wellstone could possibly still be supporting Norm Coleman, but according to TPM, Al has jumped from a 22 point deficit in February of last year to a statistical tie by November. Go Al!” -Nicole Belle, Crooks and Liars

“It works well, I think, because it nods in the direction of the fact that hey, Al Franken is running for Senate, and that’s kinda weird. So it’s a bit funny, and it uses that bit of funny to also make the serious case for Franken’s candidacy.” - Ezra Klein

Minnesota Campaign Report has Norm Coleman’s weak and defensive response:

In response to the ads, Coleman’s campaign issued a statement, saying “Al Franken probably was a nice boy when he was in 4th grade in Minnesota. But, in the 30 years he has been gone from Minnesota he went from being a cute 4th grader to an angry comedian who has made millions of dollars insulting people’s religion, taunting people who don’t agree with him and failing to offer any positive vision for the future.”

Senate 2008 Guru points us to Jonathan Stein at Mojoblog who found a biting attack ad against Norm Coleman on the pages of The New Republic. The ad, which comes in the form of a letter from a college “smoking buddy”, accuses Coleman of smoking marijuana in 1969. It ends, “How about standing up not only for who you are, but who you were? Ouch.

Kudos to Norm Coleman’s wife, Laurie, for providing us with an even funnier advertisement coming out of Minnesota. After four years working with a product designer, Mrs. Coleman is launching a product that will change the world… of, um, “hands free hair drying.” Senator Coleman, who Mrs. Coleman claims has used the “Blo and Go”, declined to provide a comment for the post.

I have a feeling this is going to be a fun race.