During our college swing, Al took a morning in Moorhead to sit down with the respected and influential editor of the Fargo Forum, Jack Zaleski. Jack and Al may not see eye to eye on every ideological point, but they talked for close to an hour, and Jack shared his thoughts in an editorial.

Candidates for political office try to get cozy with editorial page editors not because we’re such good company, but because we have the power to influence public opinion, and thus affect elections.
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Jeff Cagle from the Owatonna People’s Press had lots of questions about Al’s run for the Senate, and Al had lots of answers to give him. Norm’s campaign had some answers too, only no one we’ve talked to was asking about Rosie O’Donnell…

He’s been discussing and debating issues he believes are important to the average Minnesotan as he builds his case for the DFL nomination and race against Sen. Norm Coleman in 2008. To his credit, people are taking the Saturday Night Live alum seriously.

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Al’s been sitting down with college newspapers all week as part of his tour. You can check out the Q&A for the Mankato State University Reporter here. The interviewer was Matt Riggs, student reporter and veteran of the war in Afghanistan.

The Macalester Weekly’s Q&A can be found here.

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Larry Schumacher from the St. Cloud Times sat down with Al just after breakfast with students from St. Cloud State University.

While acknowledging his DFL competitors, Franken played the role of front-runner, directing all of his criticism at Coleman. He said the senator has not led any efforts to make higher education more affordable for students or their families.

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This Monday, Al traveled to Brainerd to hang out with the National Association of Letter Carriers. But before the convention, he caught up with Mike O’Rourke from the Brainerd Dispatch.

“I want to make people’s lives better,” Franken said.

The first-term incumbent he’s challenging, Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., has not done his job and has worked on behalf of special interests, Franken said.
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This Tuesday, Al sat down with Matt Cooper, who’s now writing for Conde Nast’s new magazine, Portfolio. It was an unusual event – held at Chambers Hotel in downtown Minneapolis, conducted before a live audience, and open to other members of the press.

And everyone there certainly got their lunch hour’s worth – you can check out this no-holds-barred interview here. Don’t miss it!

Part I is below, click through to the full post below to view the other three parts of the interview.

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Despite the serious issues that face us, the Senate and Norm Coleman are playing games over an ad.

I’m a satirist by trade. And as a satirist, my job was to point out the absurd, the hypocritical, the ridiculous in life.

It’s been a banner week for ridiculous.

Case in point: On Tuesday, Sen. Norm Coleman took out an ad in this paper criticizing me for criticizing a Senate resolution that criticized MoveOn.org for taking out an ad in the New York Times criticizing Gen. David Petraeus.

It is, of course, ridiculous that the United States Senate spent a day debating and voting on a resolution condemning an advertisement while our troops remained in Iraq, fighting a war with no end. And it’s doubly ridiculous that Coleman, of all people, is still playing politics with this issue.
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Last Saturday, Al headed south. The Jackson County DFL was having a dinner and it was King Turkey Day in Worthington. Somewhere during the festivities, Al found a minute to sit down with the editor of the Worthington Daily Globe.

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Al’s been heading down to the picket lines and rallies to support the University of Minnesota workers striking for a living wage. He’s a member of four unions himself, and he takes the issue very seriously. On Monday, he caught up with the university’s paper, the Minnesota Daily.

Franken said higher education has been a concern of his before the strike, and it would continue to be after the dispute is resolved.

He expressed a concern that the University is moving backward.

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Rochelle Olson from the Star Tribune covered Friday’s debate – the first of the 2008 cycle for the U.S. Senate candidates.

The three DFL candidates for U.S. Senate who want to oust GOP incumbent Norm Coleman participated in their initial debate Friday night, providing a first, brief glimpse at how they might seek to differentiate themselves. …

And Don Davis wrote in the West Central Tribune:

Minnesota’s three major Democratic U.S. Senate candidates agree on many policy items, but they show differences about why they should be their party’s nominee. …

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