When Al Franken first decided to get into the Senate race, one concern that many living room pundits (including myself) expressed was that he might have difficulty connecting with the good folks of this state. While I think those concerns still have validity, the latest Rasmussen poll shows that Franken has substantially closed the gap with our incumbent senator. Coleman’s numbers are under fifty percent against both Franken and Mike Ciresi, an attorney with deep pockets, which clearly marks him as endangered. With the election still over a year away, Coleman has to be thinking that his best shot of winning is to tack left of Bush. He’s already backing away from the president’s “war now, war forever” strategy. Before the year is over, he’ll probably make some carefully modulated noises about health care reform. But Coleman lacks something that his DFL opponent, whether it’s Franken or Ciresi will have in ample supply: conviction.
