More Non-Presidential Blogging

Apparently, Mike Ciresi, Democratic candidate for Senate in Minnesota, is dropping out, clearing the way for former SNL star, Al Franken to take the nomination and then face sitting Senator Norm Coleman. This is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, Ciresi was a credible candidate. He consistently polled within striking distance of Coleman and he had the ability to self-fund. But in recent weeks, Franken seems to have convinced almost everyone that he is the stronger candidate despite his funny-man background (Ciresi's slogan, by the way, was "serious about change." Not exactly a veiled reference).

This is generally good news for Democrats and bad news for Norm Coleman. Coleman was bound to be facing a difficult reelection battle in any case, but he was certainly hoping for a nasty primary to soften up his eventual opponent (for whatever that's worth). Now, the Minnesota and national Dems will rally around Franken, who was already doing very well on the fundraising front.

Now, Coleman's team wants to push the line that Franken's background and his long record of "outrageous comments" will come back to haunt him. That's their public position. Inside the campaign, they are probably pretty worried. Franken has shown that he has a particular talent for public relations and for communications strategy. If Coleman thinks that he can pull out a victory based solely on tv commercials featuring Stuart Smalley, then he is in for an embarrassing loss.

Minnesota is looking increasingly like a real pick-up opportunity for the Democrats.