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Showbiz talents who are also Democrats routinely raise money and campaign for political candidates -- but rarely run for public office themselves. So I've been watching with special interest Minnesota native son Al Franken's challenge for the U.S. Senate seat. Now, for the first time, he's moved into his first solid lead over incumbent Republican Norm Coleman, according to a weekend Star Tribune Minnesota Poll. The survey, conducted last Tuesday through Thursday by independent pollster Princeton Survey Research Associates International among 1,084 likely Minnesota voters, shows Franken leading Coleman 43% to 34%. Part of the reason is because of Independence Party candidate Dean Barkley, who is siphoning off 18% support and playing spoiler by primarily hurting Coleman. The number of voters who view the Republican unfavorably continues to grow, after he led Franken by 4% last month. 
(A stung Coleman's camp has called the new poll's methodology "flawed". But Obama is pulling away from McCain in the state as well.) The survey showed that 56% of the poll respondents consider the ads criticizing Franken to be “mostly unfair personal attacks”. Some of those ads by the Coleman and national Republican camps show Franken when he was an entertainer, cursing and ranting on political subjects. Certainly, that's what most actors especially fear most: that their roles, their TV shows or movies, their careers, will be put under the microscope. And that’s the problem: Hollywood talent who are Democrats don’t want to run for elective office. Yet their Republican counterparts do — Ronald Reagan, George Murphy, Fred Grandy, Shirley Temple Black, Clint Eastwood, Fred Thompson, Sonny Bono, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Paul Newman would have made a viable Democratic candidate. Robert Redford still could. So might Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio, Richard Dreyfuss, Martin Sheen, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Ed Asner, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Ethan Hawke, Janeane Garofalo, Jake or Maggie Gyllenhaal. But only '20s and '30s stage actress Helen Gahagan Douglas, Dukes Of Hazzard's Ben Jones, The Walton’s Ralph Waite, and Dobie Gillis' Sheila Kuehl have run as Democrats. And now Franken.
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Wait a minute…”Maggie Gyllenhaal” would’ve made a “viable Democratic candidate”? The same actress who said that America “deserved” the 9/11 attacks? That Maggie Gyllenhaal??
This nation is doomed. Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Christopher Dodd are mostly responsible for the destruction of the national mortgage market but when confronted can only say “Bush did it”. When asked to find a solution to the energy crisis Speaker Pelosi sent Congress on vacation. Since the Democrats took over Congress in 2007 gas prices have doubled and food prices are doubling.
There is still a month to go Maybe the public will wake up.
Maybe Tina Fey could run for vice president?
you’re suggesting Leonardo DiCaprio, Ethan Hawke or Jake Gyllenhaal as possibly running for office in the future? For what??? And why stop there? What about Rachel Bilson and Blake Lively?
The idea of Leonardo DiCaprio as a “viable Democratic candidate” fills me with horror, and laughter. Leonardo, despite the many accolades, can barely act. Have you seen his supposedly-great work in “Blood Diamond”? His flailing attempts at an accent are worth the price of admission alone! (if you are seeking an unintentional comedy). Personally, I would like to see John Waters run for President, with Paul Reubens as VP. That’s a ticket I could get behind!
Don’t forget Art Alexakis (Everclear)…
Laura Dern could run as a Dem.
I’ll bet she’d fool some Republicans who saw her portray Katherine Harris in HBO’s “Recount” this pst year.
Gotta be careful with those newspaper polls since you don’t know their bias. I would trust the Rasmussen poll since he’s a proven non-partisan. That one has Coleman up by 9.
Yeah, let’s put Tim Robbins, Janeane Garofolo, Richard Dreyfuss, or Susan Sarandon in office. These are some of the most ignorant, far, far left people in the friggin universe. Let’s stick to Hollywood commentary on here, pretty please. The Gyllenhaals? They’re like 18. Hell, let’s put Hayden Panetierre on the ticket. She’ll save the dolphins!!! DiCaprio as President would have us invade the Arctic to rescue all the polar bears, which is what Hollywood liberals consider national security.
Fred Grandy ran as a Republican, and I’m wondering about Josh Brolin. I mean, we could just make this a long running bit here!
If you notice, the polls are all over the place; while Gallup and Rasmussen have Obama up by about 8 — CBS News and Zogby have Obama up by only 4 and tightening. So, while polls are good indications of which way the wind is blowing, they simply can not take into account what people will do on election day and they can’t account for regions of the country where they don’t poll. I’ve never been called by a pollster in my life.
savvydude –
Which party was it that gave us Vietnam the Sequel? And deregulated the financial markets, thus causing the current crisis? And opposed pioneering clean and renewable energy sources on behalf of their real constituents in the oil industry? Was that the Green Party? The Peace and Freedom Party? Help me out here. I’m another one of those moronic, Kool Aid-drinking Hollywood liberals in desperate need of guidance from the fiscally responsible, unquestionably moral Republican party.
Indeed, let’s hope America has woken up.
MrJeff, about five people watched the trash that was Recount. And none of them were Republicans. Some people in this country do have taste you know. They’re not Democrats.
Yes, by all means, because actors have shown such leadership running their own unions.
If only 5 people watched Recount, does that win some sort of special award for highest Emmy to viewer ratio?
Yeah, Fred Grandy was a republican house member & the last quotes I saw from him were that the party no longer represented what he believed in.
Or to put it better, he was more a Rockefeller Republican than one of the wing-nut Jeebus lovers that want to turn this country into a xtian theocracy!
So, about 3 more people watched “Recount” than watched the Emmys??
So the dems are responsible for food and gas prices? LOL – you realize since sept 11th the oil companies have posted record profits? That ALL of Bush’s cronies are 10 times more wealthy now than in 2001? That the Vice President has probably tripled his wealth due to the “war” on terror in Iraq? Oil has dropped to 87 a barrel, why have the prices not followed?
Deregulation is the mantra of the Republican party – now we have failed air carriers, failed banks and a failing world economy. I can’t blame them for everything – people dumb enough to believe they can afford a 500,000 mortgage on 50,000 a year deserve failure but any bank who made that loan deserves the loss as well. We on the verge of a global economy meltdown thanks to 8 years of Bush and personal war. Deny it all you want.
-smarter than you,
Yeah the oil companies made their profits and so did the govt. The Feds get 18.4 cents/gal and the oil companies get 8 cents/gal. The Feds do NOTHING for it and the oil companies explore/drill/transport/refine and then transport it again to the market.
On the other hand with the mortgage markets made the likes of Franklin Raines (Obama housing advisor) and Jamie Garelick tens of millions of dollars for cooking the books for FannyMae and FreddyMack. And all that crap start in the late 90’s. Government started this mess with their mandates for loans for people who could not afford them and now government is going to fix it??!! Just give the druck the car keys and let him kill somebody. IDIOTS!!