Ticket Replay: Senate candidate Al Franken's townhall; one voter shows
As the recount continues in 2009 in the very close U.S. Senate race in Minnesota, The Ticket is republishing some of its favorite items from the past election season. This one was originally posted here Aug. 9, 2008 and may, in reality, show the importance of one single vote:
Al Franken is trying to turn his former fame as a comedian into the gain of one U.S. Senate seat for Democrats by upsetting incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman in Minnesota.
But he probably didn't intend his town hall meeting on veterans issues yesterday to turn into the joke.
Only one person attended.
Ouch!
Well, every vote counts. So Franken sat down in Brigitte's Cafe in St. Cloud with the lone voter interested in veterans issues, the theme Franken's staff had established for that public appearance.
Franken spent an hour listening to the woes of Navy veteran Josh John, trying to navigate the medical system for former military members.
Franken also promised to improve veterans benefits, criticized his Republican opponent and the Democratic Congress for inaction and said he hoped to serve on the same veterans committee as the late Sen. Paul Wellstone.
Then, Franken headed off for the county fair, where there was likely to be a slightly larger crowd.
-- Andrew Malcolm
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Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
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People laughed then at all that work for one vote, but this may end up being the margin of victory.
Posted by: Mark | December 27, 2008 at 02:54 PM
Talk about a non qualified putz.His handlers told him they could steal the election with the complicity of the corrupt democrat state board.Minessota has
become another Illinois like nest of democrat sleazeballs floating in a sea of puss. Now if the state board cant steal the election you can bet that Harry
Reid will choose the winner.democracy is a bit like alcohol,some individuals just have a very low tolerance and democrats have an even lower tolerance
when it comes to democracy,thats why they want to cancell secret voting in labor union meetings.
Posted by: Micky mouse candidate | December 28, 2008 at 12:32 AM
I cannot believe that Minnesota would put this idiot in a place where he will influence MY MONEY. he is as far left as you can get and he wants to nationalize and socialize EVERYTHING. You people can put him in your state house and good luck to you but putting him anywhere near my money is lunacy
Posted by: David Morris | January 01, 2009 at 01:52 PM