Like Obama, Franken is a "bootstrap" politician..and intelligent, as well

[SoCalDem]

His Daddy did not buy his way into Harvard, did not "buy" a diploma for him..

Al was not a "playboy son-of-celeb" at college.. he washed dishes.

He raised a Harvard gradute daughter and a Princeton graduate son..

He's been married to the same woman for ages..a woman he met at Harvard..

He's lived his whole adult life "in public", and to my knowledge, there has never been any scandal attached to him. he's evertything republicans hate.. a self-made man..a real one..

he's good enough, he's smart enough, and people like him..:)



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Franken
He attended Harvard College and graduated cum laude in 1973 with a bachelor of arts degree in general studies.<12> At Harvard, Franken washed dishes as a participant in the work-study program with Richard Honaker, who was nominated by U.S. President George W. Bush in 2007 as one of three U.S. District Judges from Wyoming.<13>

Franken met his wife, the former Franni Bryson, in his first year of college at a Harvard-Simmons mixer. They now reside in Minneapolis. They have a daughter, Thomasin, and a son, Joe. Thomasin graduated from Harvard College with a sociology degree, and was a public school teacher in New York City but is now volunteering full time for her father's campaign. Joe graduated from Princeton University.

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. Other than the hilarious scandals that happened in "Why not me?", he's clean!

Though I imagine he did his share of coke with the drug addled SNL crew in the 70s.

I'm so very excited about Franken getting the senate seat!

Wonderful!!

[BOSSHOG]

2. I look forward to watching Senator Franken

wax philosophical and match wits with the likes of Cornyn and Inhofe. A good parent who maintains the sanctity of marriage, wow what a horrible human being.

[SoCalDem]

4. They would be wise to avoid tangling with a quick-witted, intelligent man of words

but it will be fun to watch him take them on :)

[Democrats_win]

3. He's the best! (That's why the loser Republican are against him.)

You know, the people who have ACTUALLY destroyed America.

[Dogmudgeon]

5. I used to write comedy. Franken was my role model.

Truth be told, I had a few role models -- Bob & Ray, Jonathan Winters, Buck Henry, Thorne Smith, Jay Ward, S.J.Pearlman and suchlike -- but Al Franken was one of the luminaries.

Truth be told number two, I wasn't nearly as good at it as Franken or those other guys. But a mediocre mind has to have some lofty ideal to which to aspire.

Following Franken's political career has been one of the high points of the past eight years. Minnesotans are incredibly lucky to have him as their "junior" Senator.

--p!

[NYCGirl]

7. Wow! Never knew someone else who is a Thorne Smith fan!

BTW, I think Al's comedy heroes are Bob & Ray and Jack Benny.

[Dogmudgeon]

12. I'm a long-time Thorne Smith fan

I didn't even know he wrote Topper and The Passionate Witch (later to become "Bewitched", unfinished but completed by Norman H. Matson in the 1940s) until I had after I read http://homepage.ntlworld.com/forgottenfutures/smith/lamb/lamb00.htm">The Stray Lamb and http://homepage.ntlworld.com/forgottenfutures/smith/nightlf/ntlf-00.htm">Night Life of the Gods. I think there are also a few fan sites; about a dozen of Smith's books can be found at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/forgottenfutures/smith/smith.htm">The *Forgotten Futures* Thorne Smith Collection in HTML and LIT format. Smith died at 32, but only a few of his works are still under copyright.

The guy was not just a comic genius, he is one of the few "magical realism" writers in the English language until it recently re-emerged in genre Sci-Fi. And Smith's stories hold up through time. It's been 82 years since he published the first Topper story (as http://homepage.ntlworld.com/forgottenfutures/smith/topper1/top1-00.htm">The Jovial Ghosts), but with a few cosmetic changes, most of the stories could be re-cast today.

DU is a serendipitous place to find fans of the obscure -- there's a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apartment">Fran Kubelik who posts here, too. Quite a break from the hundreds of Verbal Kints and Keyser Sozes and Trinities and Benders and 3Janes I've run into online.

Now if I could only find someone who could walk me through some of Cantinflas' movies ...

I don't know about Al Franken's comedic background in any detail, but in addition to SNL, he'd been published off and on through the 1970s and 80s. He always had the most un-mannered, un-affected "auctorial voice" of all the SNL writers, which appealed to my anti-hip sentiments. Franken was being groomed to take over SNL but offended Fred Silverman, then the NBC CEO, in a sketch ("No Limo for Lame-o"). Alas!

Anyway, I fear that I am hijacking SoCalDem's thread ...

--p!
"Shut up and deal."
(F. Kubelik)

[SoCalDem]

13. Hijack, away.. The serendipitous turns that threads make,

often tell us things we needed to know, but did not know it....

almost in a benign Rumsfeldian way :)

[NYCGirl]

6. Here's a cool pic of Al and Franni in college from his website:

http://www.alfranken.com/pages/meet_al/

[BOSSHOG]

8. Almost a Bill and Hillarish picture

[pinto]

9. Thanks for the real world background notes. Franken seems to represent that upper midwest,

populist liberal tradition well. :thumbsup:

[Ichingcarpenter]

10. Franken could lead the call for election reform in this country

I'm hoping that will be one of his callings now.

I have his book personally autographed to me which I'm proud of.

[SoCalDem]

11. perhaps his squeaker election will lead him down that path

we can hope

[Joe Fields]

14. The only way Franken is like Obama is the D behind his name.

I don't believe Obama ever wrote for or appeared regularly on SNL. I believe at the time, Obama was busy working his way up through the political spectrum.