I’ve had a few conversations in the last week or two about the latest Senator from Minnesota,  Al Franken.

People outside of Minnesota can’t really figure the whole thing out. We seem like these relatively stolid people, but we do occasionally elect some really odd ducks or perhaps I should say loons.

One of the best online explanations was the recent David Carr  NYT article, “Al Franken and the Odd Politics of Minnesota“. The only thing he missed was emphasizing how Franken has been re-casting himself as a pundit instead of a comedian for years. While the radio show might not have taken the nation by storm it cast him solidly in a different genre than Saturday Night Live cast member/comedian. The same thing is true for Jesse Ventura – who at least finished his term in office. We thought of him as a radio pundit – not a pro wrestler.

I’m a little disappointed to hear that Franken isn’t planning to be funny in the Senate. I think a little humor might be good for the place. Amy Klobuchar has done a surprisingly job being funny in the last eight months – I suppose she can keep pulling more than her fair share if required.

OK, it’s a little late for me to endorse a presidential candidate. Before I begin, I want to talk about Reagan Republicans.

know this post-election period is all about determining where the Republican’s went wrong – so why am I bringing up Reagan?

It’s because I remember enough about the late 70’s and early 80’s to remember why people voted for Reagan. The U.S. was in bad shape; we had endured energy shortages, the Iran hostage crisis, economic competition from abroad, rising inflation and high interest rates. This is not why people voted for a Republican. Most of the people who vote for Republicans do so because they are Republicans. They’ll vote for just about any reasonably qualified candidate. The same is largely true for people who vote for Democrats, btw. The interesting feature of the 1980 election was the independents and the people who lean Democratic who came over to Reagan.

The same is true in this election. There are many ways to look at the electorate and how they voted but you can find numerous examples of standard Republicans who voted for Obama then turned around and voted for Republican Senators and Congressman and women – I know they certainly did in my district. Why do people do this?

The answer is simple and it is rooted in hope.

Reagan like Obama communicated a certain kind of optimism in the strength of this nation. You can complain about Reagan’s policies and divisive approach to issues but Reagan made people feel differently about the country. That is more enough to win an election. McCain and Palin didn’t have anything approaching the hope Obama talked about throughout his campaign. Their campaign degenerated into pointless namecalling which is as far from hope as you can get. I won’t even want to get into a discussion of the primary that featured Hillary Clinton who shockingly chided Obama for giving people false hope.

More than any other factor, Obama raised the money and won the election because his campaign was about hope.

American’s want to believe that this country is special and we can do amazing things. Tap into that and you can get the nation to line up behind you, well at least 53% which is more than enough.

So what did I do in the voting booth? Against habit, I voted for hope.

As Hugh MacLeod said, “The market for something to believe in is infinite.”

Now I don’t think that an Obama presidency will feature each of us excreting well capitalized banks, unicorns and solar-powered cars. In fact, I think it’s likely that we will enter a malaise that makes 1982 look like a cake-walk. The holder of the office will be largely powerless to counter some threats we face – at least we won’t have Sarah Palin trying to understand what she should do next.

Next up, I’ll explain how George Bush has destroyed the Republican party.

Why bother explaining why Sarah Palin isn’t qualified for the job when she does such an over the top job explaining it in her own words.

COURIC: Why isn’t it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families who are struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries; allow them to spend more and put more money into the economy instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

PALIN: That’s why I say I, like every American I’m speaking with, were ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health-care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy, helping the—it’s got to be all about job creation, too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So health-care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans. And trade, we’ve got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, scary thing. But one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today, we’ve got to look at that as more opportunity. All those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that.

I haven’t seen the playbook myself, but I am betting this is the plan.

McCain will go to Washington and crack a few heads and get a bailout plan going. I think that when he went to the capitol he called in every chit he had and made sure the bill would flounder in the house. The real question is what did he have to promise to get the job done?

I know it’s a conspiracy theory – sounds pretty crazy – we’ll see if it looks plausible in a week.

The flip side it is nice to see the congress growing a little backbone and not rubber stamping every request. Too bad they are playing chicken with the world’s economy.

While thinking about the current financial crisis I was reminded of a conversation with a friend about Bernie Ebbers, ex WorldCom CEO. We were debating about what might be an apropos punishment for someone who had swindled 11 billion dollars from investors and caused financial upheaval across the high tech industry. His answer was “He should be sold to the inmate with the most cigarettes.” It’s kind of a chilling thought.

When you look at the people who bear the brunt of these corporate collapses, even if we skate through this one economically, there are a lot of ordinary people who never had a choice in the matter who will be thrown out of work because of unrestrained greed and avarice.

It makes me chuckle when he says “we’ve got the cables”.

Even if you think bloggers are dilettantes, blowhards and egomaniacs, it is tough for me to imagine wanting to irritate them like this. Just ask Trett Lott.

McCain got a nice laugh out of the room, underscoring the fact that he seems to connect in small rooms. I don’t think he has a prayer in November unless Obama has a big Chicago-sized skeleton that hasn’t been unearthed yet.

I really couldn’t say anything better about the 4th of July than I did a few years back. Read it again, please. Did I mention yet how annoyed I am that no candidate is really serious about ending the illegal wiretap programs. It was ok to throw Mr. Wright under the bus, but why the FISA compromise?

The week’s “Ralph Nader Overcoat Award” is hereby awarded to Reverend Wright. I believe we haven’t heard the last of you yet. Will you be the Billy Beer of the new millenium? It’s too soon to know.

CNN is reporting the score of the McCain/Romney match-up as 37-32. I have to say I am quite relieved to see Huckabee polling in the low double digits. I liked the movie ok, I don’t like him for President.

Hillary also managed a surprise 39-37 edge over Obama. I though Obama was going to walk away with this one. I’m not sure what Hillary did differently, but I am curious to see if it will continue.

According to the Electoral Compass, it tends to reason I don’t like any of the candidates since none of them align with my political beliefs.