Any Coleman-Franken results yet?

[Gopher4Life]

I heard they suddenly discovered a stack of uncounted ballots yesterday. And is it true that one blue precinct counted more votes for Franken than the total number of people who signed up to vote? LOL

[From the Barn]

Nope.

[StPaulHawkeye]

I thought that someone would have posted something about how very suspicious it is that Senator Coleman's lead is growing during the recount. After all, when his lead was shrinking after the election and before it was certified, that was suspicious.
I am sure if he wins, Coleman will come out with a press release saying how he always supported the recount and how vital it is to follow election procedures, etc.

[jamiche]

if Coleman wins does he do the party switch thing again. Ever the opportunist, does Norm really want to remain as a low ranking minority party member for the next decade? He would have nothing to do but raise money and provide constituent services. If he switches the dems would give him great assignments. Given the current lineup in the senate and the oily sheen on Norm's skin, I think that it is a plausible scenario.

Another enormous irony is that a razor thin Coleman victory can be directly attributed to the endorsement of Pravda West. I haven't heard G4, beej and a few other of my rightist friends bash the strib lately.

[Schnoodler]

This is a pretty good Op for Norm to redefine himself, as a kinder and gentler republican. It suits him anyway. He could very well come out of this as a party leader in a few years. He could really be appealing to the younger middle the party hasn't done well with.

[playhosea!]

This is a pretty good Op for Norm to redefine himself, as a kinder and gentler republican. It suits him anyway. He could very well come out of this as a party leader in a few years. He could really be appealing to the younger middle the party hasn't done well with.

I'm going to disagree with you on this one. Norm is an incumbent Senator, well-known to all Minnesotans, who could only pull 42%. While it was nominally a three-way race, I think people overwhelmingly disliked the candidates. Franken is a pretty terrible candidate. Lots of DFLers strongly dislike him and hundreds of thousands split their ticket. Still Norm got only 42% and if he won, did so by less than 1,000 votes. Tens of thousands of Minnesotans just left the race blank because they disliked the candidates.

Add to that, if Norm wins he may very well end up facing an ethics investigation over the alleged payments his wife received from Nasser Kazeminy for the same charge (accepting unreported gifts) that brought down his friend Ted Stevens.

In the end I think it's unlikely that Coleman emerges as a leader in his party, since he'll have no electoral mandate from Minnesotans and may well have a toxic cloud hanging over him until (and unless) the allegations are disproven.

[Schnoodler]

I'm going to disagree with you on this one. Norm is an incumbent Senator, well-known to all Minnesotans, who could only pull 42%. While it was nominally a three-way race, I think people overwhelmingly disliked the candidates. Franken is a pretty terrible candidate. Lots of DFLers strongly dislike him and hundreds of thousands split their ticket. Still Norm got only 42% and if he won, did so by less than 1,000 votes. Tens of thousands of Minnesotans just left the race blank because they disliked the candidates.

Add to that, if Norm wins he may very well end up facing an ethics investigation over the alleged payments his wife received from Nasser Kazeminy for the same charge (accepting unreported gifts) that brought down his friend Ted Stevens.

In the end I think it's unlikely that Coleman emerges as a leader in his party, since he'll have no electoral mandate from Minnesotans and may well have a toxic cloud hanging over him until (and unless) the allegations are disproven.

I don't know, assuming he'll actually win, it's a pretty big win in a populace inclined towards the dems in a dem state. The party, if they decide to change their image will be looking for moderates. I'm not sure how you could count Norm out of that scenario.

[grunkiejr]

I'm going to disagree with you on this one. Norm is an incumbent Senator, well-known to all Minnesotans, who could only pull 42%. While it was nominally a three-way race, I think people overwhelmingly disliked the candidates. Franken is a pretty terrible candidate. Lots of DFLers strongly dislike him and hundreds of thousands split their ticket. Still Norm got only 42% and if he won, did so by less than 1,000 votes. Tens of thousands of Minnesotans just left the race blank because they disliked the candidates.

Add to that, if Norm wins he may very well end up facing an ethics investigation over the alleged payments his wife received from Nasser Kazeminy for the same charge (accepting unreported gifts) that brought down his friend Ted Stevens.

In the end I think it's unlikely that Coleman emerges as a leader in his party, since he'll have no electoral mandate from Minnesotans and may well have a toxic cloud hanging over him until (and unless) the allegations are disproven.

Regardless of the outcome of the election the Democrats failed in this race. Coleman was a very beatable candidate, Obama brought Democratic leaning voters out of the woodwork and dominated the state, the Democrats spending had to set records, and Franken was such a poor candidate that he could not capitalize on any of it. A legitimate candidate from the Democratic party would have blown Coleman out of the water. Franken may still win but the fact that it is close tells you that he has very little support.

Barkley had to have set a modern day election record for the most votes received per dollar spent campaigning. Both the Republican and Democratic were so bad in the eyes of the public that they chose "C" or didn't vote at all.