September 16th, 2009
(Click Here To Watch The Video)
I got to witness something really special the other day. About a dozen tea party activists had staked out Sen. Al Franken’s booth at the Minnesota State Fair and confronted him loudly when he arrived. But within minutes, he’d turned an unruly crowd into a productive conversation on health care. The discussion went from insurance reform, to the public option, to veterans benefits, to cap and trade. He made a few laugh and even told a touching story that moved a few to tears. A whole lot of common ground was found.
UPDATE: I’ve just posted more clips of Sen. Franken at the MN State Fair below the fold…
(Click Here To Watch The Video)
(Click Here To Watch The Video)
NIce, very nice.
My experience at the same location yesterday was more cerebral than action-packed: http://tinyurl.com/astroturving-the-state-fair
Love the corndogs.
It’s great to see the open discussion for a change. That’s the amazing thing about the Minnesota State Fair: Everyone’s there and everyone wants to chat.
Hey, this is a great video.
How can I convince my rightie friend that this was legit and not staged in any way? Will the full video show how this got started or do anything to help convince the skeptical that it was not a setup?
thanks and keep up the good work
Good question. I’m out at the Minnesota State Fair for the next few days, but once I’m back at my desk next week I’ll work on posting the rest of the video. I trimmed it where I did because the Franken booth is right across the street from a radio station and a lot of the audio is basically drown out by the lovely Miley Cyrus. She’s partying in the USA, you know.
The full video is about 25 minutes. It shows just about everything.
Al had the same explanation at a North Hennepin AreaChamber of Commerce meeting last week. It is the single best explanation of what’s going on with health care I’ve heard anywhere.
Obama should cancel his speech and let Al give it.
Oh, and nice score getting Boinged!
Thanks for letting me in here. I am a very disgruntled, dissatisfied life long democrat, who feels that the party has sold out to the fringe wing-bat (or is that moon-nut?) left. It has long since stopped being the party of the blue collar middle class. BUT, after seeing this vid posted on Gun Totiong Liberal, I had to come and say THANK YOU. And GREAT FIND. Here is what I posted on GTL:
Wow, he ISN’T just a foul-mouthed. not very funny asshole!
Unlike Woolsey, Babs, Thompson, DiFi, and most of the others he seems to have actually done some study and done some thinking about it. And, since he was a stand up comic, he knows how to worka crowd and either calm it down or rile it up.
PLUS – HE GOT OUT AMONG THE GREAT UNWASHED! It sounds like he was at a fair and took the time from enjoying the fair to TALK to the electorate. He didn’t stand up behind a podium and pntificate and tell us he knows what is best for us (again, thinking of Woolsey, Pelosi, Boxer, Feinstein). And when he did sound condecending, he apologized for it. Can you see Babs “Don’t call me Ma’am, I have a Title” Boser getting out like that? Or the ACORN worker? God forbid that they should mingle with the commoners. KInd of harks back to the good old days. Take a read of this: http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig4/ellis1.html
I grew up in Minneapolis and have lived about one-third of my life there. And since Minnesota was my last state of residence before moving to Toronto in 1991, I still vote in the 5th Congressional District. Watching the video, I cannot tell you how relieved and proud I am that Al Franken – rather than Norm “Slimey” Coleman – is our Senator.
He not only talked down a potentially unruly, uninformed mob of goofballs and wingnuts, he talked sense and gave solid information about reforming the medico-insurance complex that controls health care in the US. Al actually had the woman in the Tea Party T-shirt nodding in agreement with him. Don’t tell Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck! They’ll hunt her down and ship her off to a right wing indoctrination camp for re-education.
More impressive to me, though, is that Sen. Franken demonstrated how much studying he’s done on the issue and came to a thoughtful, informed conclusion. Too bad the six so-called “ConservaDems” like Max Baucus don’t spend an hour or two with him.
Hey, congratulations on the successful video. More importantly, thanks for making it in the first place. I think you have made a lot of people very happy with this. Al Franken is truly great, and I wonder how all of those idiots who continue to refuse to take him seriously would respond to this. The first civilized, rational discussion of its kind so far. Keep it up, enjoy the fair, and post the rest of the vid soon.
This video is circulating well among political blogs!
Please post the rest of it soon, before the bigger sites like the POLITICO pick up the story.
You might also want to call it something other than an “Angry Mob”, unless more video shows them actual acting.. you know like an angry mob.
That was brilliant – I’m going to have to take back all the bad things I said about Franken. This is what we need more than anything at this time (and at the Fair) – engagement, reason, passion, and an effort towards building consensus. Thank you!