Only weeks ago, former comedian and Air America radio talk host Al Franken looked as if he were bound to return to Air America, his comedic roots, and Saturday Night Live.
Today, the nemesis of Rush Limbaugh, and Billo Reilly is considered the frontrunner in his race against Minnesota neoconconservative slimeball Sen. Norm Coleman.
The Washington Post reports that a University of Wisconsin poll out Thursday, showed Franken ahead of Coleman 40 to 34%, his biggest lead yet in the race. Independent spoiler (and Jesse Ventura cohort) Dean Barkley is getting by 15 percent in the survey down from 17- 20%. It appears Franken is peeling away Barkley's voters.
Franken played defense all spring and summer dealing with an accusation he'd failed to pay some old taxes and for writing a comedic essay in Playboy that stirred nascent Republican feminist outrage.
What happened? -- the same as what happened to Republicans all over the political map. The financial markets collapsed, Coleman supported the $700 billion bail-out; Franken did not, and never lets Coleman forget it.
Meanwhile the RNC, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are pouring millions into the race, and dialing up the shit machine to 11. At a rally last week with Coleman in attendance, Obama was compared to Charles Manson. A campaign piece that looked like a kid's comic was sent unwrapped to Minnesota families and talked frankly about the rape of children, and Al Franken's alleged approval.
Jodi Dickey once dismissed Franken's candidacy, and told the Washington Post it was "like Tina Fey running for office." But then, the Post continues, " the undecided voter thought a bit more about the state of the country and reconsidered. "Actually, maybe that's not such a bad idea."
Do you think it is possible that the endorsements of some of these well-publicized highly paid hate-mongers on the radio and cable are actually peeling away votes from the right?
Maybe these guys - who still seem to have an audience - are losing credibility with that audience. Real fear - of the economy and losing regular paychecks as well as homes - is beginning to replace hate as a primary motivator.
Gotta wonder...
Today the CBC did a lengthy program on the Obama campaign in Missouri. Showed lines out the door to volunteer for Obama while the Republicans were simply manning phone banks. The program noted that Obama was using his own skills and experience as a community organizer to use these volunteers in hand-to-hand, person-to-person contact.
Community outreach was his focus.
I can't wait to see the outcome! He wasn't and isn't actually my candidate, but he's a darn-site better than McCain.
Posted by: joanie | October 26, 2008 at 12:22 PM
I'd sure like to know what the right-wingers on this blog think about the use of such a smear tactic as handing out comic books like those described above. Do you really want to win that badly?
I wonder if you'll even address it? It is pretty low, isn't it?
Posted by: joanie | October 26, 2008 at 12:27 PM
'I can't wait to see the outcome! He wasn't and isn't actually my candidate, but he's a darn-site better than McCain.'
Well, I'm sorry you can't have John Edwards or Wes Clark...ergo you'll have to settle (& vote) for POTUS Obama. Please protect this Country and keep it safe now that you will have 'complete' control.
Posted by: Duffman | October 26, 2008 at 12:40 PM
My candidate was Kucinich. And I don't have to do anything . . . but I will. (insert smiley face here)
Posted by: joanie | October 26, 2008 at 12:51 PM
I think it's going to be a landslide, people are voting with their pocketbooks regardless of the hate the GOP offers. But we will remain vigilante of the dirty tricks.
Posted by: Coiler | October 26, 2008 at 01:04 PM
I'd sure like to know what the right-wingers on this blog think about the use of such a smear tactic as handing out comic books like those described above.
Comic books are all some people understand. Take, for instance, someone like Joanie who doesn't know basic geography (she thinks Okinawa is an independent country). She may be semi-literate as well. Everyone deserves information delivered to them in a way they can digest.
Posted by: Gay Gary | October 26, 2008 at 01:48 PM
Yes, hate and perversion seem to be the only thing other people understand. Does that sound like Gary...
Oh, so sorry, Gary.
Posted by: joanie | October 26, 2008 at 01:54 PM
I'm laughing so hard here. I'll put down the rope for the benefit of the other posters.
I think this is sexual for Gary. But it isn't for me. I like jousting with chucks better.
Ride that might steed into the sunset, Gary. Find yourself another Oculus Bleu. Someone who will remain true this time.
Still waiting for someone with integrity to respond to my question. You're unusually silent stevens, chucks and puts.
Posted by: joanie | October 26, 2008 at 01:57 PM
I like playing this character better than the previous, flirtatious, giggling one I ran on Joanie. This one is a bit more fun, especially counting the number of times she angrily shouts "I'm through with you! Never replying to your posts again!" only to reply mere minutes later.
Gay Gary might start a new character next week, though. Undecided on that.
Posted by: Gay Gary | October 26, 2008 at 02:14 PM
I was thinking about trying a conservative bashing persona again but it just didn't take last time. I called Sarah Palin every nasty name in the book and basically accused her of being a whore and none of the conservative posters took the bait. So I'm relegated to targeting the liberals, since they do, but I'm not sure what my new bend will be.
Posted by: Gay Gary | October 26, 2008 at 02:28 PM
You've finally said something interesting.
My experience is that few people take on bullies like you.
Conservative or liberal, people rarely take on bullies. I'm entrenched currently in a situation where some people are trying to bully others. I am the only one who speaks up against them. I will probably lose that battle. But, somehow I have to take such things on. Who knows why.
Bush and Cheney are bullies and look what that has gotten us. McCain appears to be a bully - hate tactics and smear campaigns. Obama uses reason and information.
I guess I'm just an old soul who knows the consequences for letting bullies take over.
I hope my own aggressive confrontations do not put me in that category. I try to confront that which is clearly selfish, greedy, and hateful. I'm not always successful. One has to be very very careful else one become another bully.
I've come close to crossing that line and perhaps have crossed it from time to time. Something I'm trying to avoid.
Posted by: joanie | October 26, 2008 at 02:49 PM
Some get their master's degree to expand their horizons and open up to a more comprehensive way of thinking, others get it to maximize their pay grade...it's not hard to tell which is which. And YOU so affected KNOW what I mean.
Posted by: Duffman | October 26, 2008 at 02:49 PM
Yes, Duffman, we agree. And society honors who improve their pay grade more than those who expand their horizons.
But Duffman, I always thought that those in the former category were called Republicans. Am I wrong?
Posted by: joanie | October 26, 2008 at 03:03 PM
I've come close to crossing that line and perhaps have crossed it from time to time.
Are you referring to when you started spouting anti-Semitic slurs like a crazed maniac?
Posted by: Gay Gary | October 26, 2008 at 03:07 PM
That was all in your imagineation. You were looking for a target and took the first opportunity which was the word "money changers.
That's what bullies do, isn't it? Find their first opportunity and keep pounding it to death.
Posted by: joanie | October 26, 2008 at 03:12 PM
So clear. You kept trying to pound me into submissiveness. But you failed. I wonder if you're trying again?
Do you now yourself? I'm thinking you don't know what to do next. You've revealed yourself.
I'll be curious to see Act III.
Posted by: joanie | October 26, 2008 at 03:16 PM
True, joanie. I know you're not an anti-semitic, I was just trying to get a rise out of you.
Truth is, I'm not gay, I don't live in Capitol Hill, I'm not 34, there is no one called Oculus Bleu, I don't believe in impending raping sprees ... I just had a free period this year it's 3rd period so I can't leave campus and none of my friends have it; it's my senior year and I got a PE waiver because I wrestled for 4 years which gave me an extra credit. Then I got addicted to this blog and now I'm checking it even on my freetime. I kind of feel like a douche. Anyway, whatever. My free period is over at the end of this semester so I can't devote time to posting here anymore ... probably for the best. Anyway, it was amusing sparring with Joanie and Sparkie, periodically. (But it was sweetest of all when Luke Burbank called me an "idiot!" ... or when we had the sobering, serious discussion about autism - hehe) But all good things do come to an end, unfortunately. Aight, keep it real everyone - L8R -
And PS ... Joanie, read a book about geography for chrissakes! (J/K)
Posted by: Gay Gary | October 26, 2008 at 03:20 PM
Act III just completed. Reviews, anyone?
I can't wait for Act IV.
Posted by: joanie | October 26, 2008 at 03:26 PM
May be just may be this time gigi will be gone for good any bets.
Posted by: jaonie | October 26, 2008 at 03:53 PM
No, Duff. Then I got addicted to this blog and now I'm checking it even on my freetime.
Addictions are hard to break. Semesters don't end in October or November. And "L8R" doesn't mean good-bye.
But he's good. I'll give him that.
Posted by: joanie | October 26, 2008 at 04:08 PM
By the way the whole meaning of the Gay Gary scenario was A three-legged toad carries an elephant on it's back, but I doubt any one ever realized that.
Posted by: Oculus Bleu | October 26, 2008 at 04:16 PM
haaa! ok, i don't really come here much but if i'm not mistaken, when "gay gary" started posting he openly said he was 17? or did i miss something? can someone find that post?(and by the way, is this the same dude who caused luke burbanks infamous onair meltdown? he was in high school - ?)
Posted by: the Other Kevin | October 26, 2008 at 05:46 PM
here's an exchange (thanks google) but it's not the one i'm thinking of ---
---
"another casualty of KIRO's Black Wednesday"
This is a horribly racist statement and this blog should take it back. We don't need this blog turning into some Neo-Con site. I'm upset that Carl Jeffers was let go and don't need it called "Black Wednesday" anymore than I would want it called "Jew Wednesday" because Goldy was fired. THANKS.
Posted by: Gay Gary |
---
You have no sense of history, Gay Gary, if you think "Black Wednesday" has anything to do with race. go Google "Black Friday."
Posted by: sparky |
---
"You have no sense of history, Gay Gary, if you think "Black Wednesday" has anything to do with race. go Google "Black Friday.""
I don't know what you're talking about old man. I'm 17 years old and learn everything I need to know from TBTL with Luke Burbank. (He is SO hot, BTW!)
Posted by: Gay Gary |
---
Posted by: the Other Kevin | October 26, 2008 at 05:50 PM
Thanks, Gary. Nobody cares. Now, have a good life, dear.
Posted by: joanie | October 26, 2008 at 05:59 PM
Hey GG you and ochlus should rent a limo next year for the prom
Posted by: cyn | October 26, 2008 at 06:44 PM
I thought Oculus Bleu was the nickname he gave to his vibrator.
Posted by: Cal | October 26, 2008 at 07:20 PM
Not surprising to me at all that Franken likes to write about raping women. Look at Hussein, he spent many days in the same company of two Rapist. Bill Ayers and his wife Bernardine Dohrn. Those two raped America.
I cant figure the Libs out. They hate a guy who has a conversation about sex a on a phone yet turn thier backs when one of thier own (Hussein) hangs out with people that have raped thier country and make fun (Franken) of a women being raped. Cant figure it out. What is wrong with you libs.
And not to bring it up again but I notice that it is not getting the same exposure here as Imus' "nappy headed ho's" remark. But right here on BW one of thier own has refered to thier President Candidate Hussein as "OUR BOY". Where is the outrage.
Here is what he posted...
"Yes, and you go back twenty years on OUR BOY--which decade are you in?"
Posted by: Coiler | October 24, 2008 at 11:36 PM
and
What of it if OUR BOY sat through twenty years of free speech. We sat through some 3-4 decades of hate speech by Falwell and Robertson and your side was ok with that.
It'll be good to see Limbaugh develop an on-air stroke and Savage getting his ass kicked in public after making more racist comments.
We need to thin out the herd.
Posted by: Coiler | October 24, 2008 at 11:19 PM
Posted by: nevets | October 26, 2008 at 08:20 PM
rolf nevets needs to go to bed--his parents are turning in the driveway
Posted by: willamette | October 26, 2008 at 09:38 PM
You were good, Gary. I've been laughing all evening. Thanks.
Steven, you need a life.
Posted by: joanie | October 27, 2008 at 01:03 AM
There go the Libs again. Turning thier backs. I wonder if they will turn thier backs when Hussein sends thier relatives to the collective farms in Eastern Washington.
Posted by: nevets | October 27, 2008 at 07:59 AM
I see the hyper negativity among the republicans. Does steven know Hawaii is the 50th state?
Posted by: Coiler | October 27, 2008 at 08:25 AM
Collective farms? That's just plain ignorance talking - or is it the latest robo-call?
Posted by: joanie | October 27, 2008 at 08:35 AM
Coiler, yes I do know that Hawaii is the 50th state, now can you tell me the other 7 states Hussein thinks are in the Union. Maybe it was one of them he was born in.
Ignorance, Joanie, I'm sure those Russians thought the same thing before they swept Lenin in power in 1917. Care to guess how many died on those farms both Lenin and Stalin set up to feed the elite in Moscow.
You think you would be one of those elite Joanie, guess again. Those with educations go first because that is where the threat to the Government will be perceived. Hussein will have you picking sweet potatoes in no time after he is elected.
Posted by: nevets | October 27, 2008 at 05:35 PM