Why are people surprised when Al Franken says something thoughtful and/or intelligent? Do they think he is just some character from SNL? Have they not read his books? Do they not know he went to Harvard and actually has an analytical brain? Sigh.

Thanks for posting the clip, Kevin.

Indeed, that’s an impressive clip.

As far as J’s question goes, I think people do mistake the role that a performer plays with the actual person.  In Franken’s case we see his intelligence, but we also see someone who likes to go on the attack.  That’s very useful for going after Rushbo, but not necessarily useful for explaining the public option, which he did well in the clip.

J and Alt, I think it also goes back to something I heard during the campaign, and I cannot remember who said it (for some reason, I want to say Howard Fineman—anyway, I’m pretty sure it was one of the “Countdown” regulars).

Anyway, this person I can’t remember, in talking about the McCain strategy, said that the idea of painting Obama as an extremist was bound to backfire once people saw him at the debates, because what they saw was a thoughtful, intelligent, calm person—not a radical revolutionary. They expected Eldridge Cleaver an got Will Smith. And this Maybe-Fineman person said that the GOP (and let’s face it, HRC as well) had screwed themselves by running against the cartoon of the opponent they had built up—green, inexperienced, an empty suit who gave good speeches but didn’t know squat about policy. Until he was ASKED about policy and, whoops, turns out he could answer those questions pretty well. You might not agree with his answers, but you couldn’t say he didn’t have thoughtful responses.

Same thing with Franken. And I’d also say that one reason Reagan did so well is that the Dems who tried to demonize him could never get past the fact that people did LIKE Reagan. I wasn’t one of them, but it was hard to paint him as the fascist extremist.

Anyway, everyone just stop using Hitler as a point of comparison! Yeah. That’s what I’m trying to say. I know, Jon Stewart said it first.

I truly do hope that the crazies we’re seeing are the same assholes who screamed “off with his head” at Sarah Palin’s Pretty Little Hatefests last fall (I’m sure those made Amy Siskind’s panties wet, though.) I mean, we couldn’t have created that many more crazies in just 9 months, could we?

Oh, and go Al!

I loved the look on that lady’s face when he said “I’m going to vote how I want to vote.”

Utterly clueless as how representative government works.

And I think the old lady thinks she’s waiting in line for an elephant ear.

Although I also have to say, if you’re going to confront an angry mob, try to make sure that mob is composed mostly of people of Scandihoovian descent. Texas would be so much nicer if more Swedes had found their way there.

Unfortunately, those Scandihoovian retirees move to Florida, where the constant heat fries their brains.

What a pleasure to hear a politician trying to find common ground instead of relying on the politics of division and anger.  And what a surprise that it’s Franken doing it ... it sounded like the former senator Culver (IA), actually.

Thanks for sharing this clip!

That was an EXCELLENT example of how this issue should be discussed and debated.  Very refreshing, indeed.

This is excellent. And it sort of reminds me - I know I haven’t posted in here in a while and I am not trying to cause trouble - of the way Bill Clinton generally behaves in these situations. There is no empty equivocating going on with Al.

You know, this sort of thing requires the ability to listen to the questions being asked, to hear what’s really being said, before responding. And then, of course, being constructive and honest.

A very nice way to start the morning. Thanks.

After watching the above clip, I thought I would call Senator Franken’s office to let him know how much I appreciate hearing a senate Democrat addressing questions about health care reform so competently.

Unfortunately, his office does not yet have its website up, so you have to call the senate switchboard to get his office.

For those of you who’d like to show Senator Franken some verbal love, his direct dial number is 202-224-5641.  The staffer with whom I spoke said they’re working on the website thing.

That was a very impressive example of finding the common ground.  Everyone agreed health care was too expensive and everyone agreed there are concerns about how to pay for reforms.  Getting beyond the rhetoric to the real problems is important.  What’s also going to be difficult is getting the message out in a way that doesn’t put people to sleep.  Even Franken, with his great sense of humor, can’t explain reform goals without coming off as wonky and pedantic.  The Dems need to come up with some catchy slogans about the goals:  “Sick before?  Denial no more!”  (I know that’s pretty bad, but you get the picture.)

At the beginning he was getting a lot of the misconceptions cleared up, but for some reason at the end he was getting shaky leg there.

It seem the more people came that were oppose to the health care reform the more he start talking about the wrong things that was going on with Medicare.

What does Medicare have to do with the people that have insurance, but are still not covered enough?

Health care reform is not just about Medicare because people on Medicare are not have the same problems that people with insurance are having or ones without insurance.

Also can someone please explain to me how we will have lesser doctors and nurse if more people are insured?

Wouldn’t we have more doctor and nurses in the field because of the high number of new patients going into doctors offices?

I am so tired of hearing these people talk and the people we elected letting them run the agenda.

Oops sorry for the mistakes in the first post.

Jane, I’ve heard that argument (mostly from libertarians) and it confuses me, too. The libertarians use the old standard “Well, if you put in price controls, doctors won’t make enough and they’ll just leave the field!” And I always wonder “To do WHAT? Become MBAs? I seriously don’t think anyone who spends all the money required to get an MD and then goes through internship and residency programs is gonna say “That’s it, if you can’t pay me X amount for running X number of tests whether they need to be run or not, I’m outta here. Gonna make it as a professional cardshark!” Or, I guess, take their medical practices offshore -  though given that most places in the world where a wealthy doc would want to live already have some form of universal healthcare, where would they go?

I’m sure some disgruntled docs would take jobs with research places, etc., but not enough to destroy the field.

If anything, we need to be finding ways to LEVEL the field so that general practitioners and internists have incentives to stay in those disciplines. And bringing down administrative overheads would help more private practices, would it not? All I’ve read from people in private practice is how much they have to pay out in salaries for clerical staff to keep track of all the different health plans and regulations and how it gets in the way of just practicing medicine.

Of course, as the daughter of public school teachers, I am also highly amused that libertarians never make the “if we pay teachers more we’ll have better outcomes” argument. They don’t seem to worry about good teachers leaving the field because of depressed salaries. Why is that, do you suppose?

Also can someone please explain to me how we will have lesser doctors and nurse if more people are insured?

I think the point that person was trying to make is that if we provide preventive care for everyone there won’t be enough doctors to do it.  So, apparently, the answer is to let people continue to die for lack of preventive care.

I am not aware of any statistics indicating that there are not enough doctors, PA’s and nurse practitioners in this country that people would be denied health insurance paid preventive care if they showed up to get it.  I know there are rural areas that are not adequately covered by health care practitioners.

But to argue that we shouldn’t increase access to preventive care because of a shortage of medical personnel is stupid on its face.

Oblomova, very well said.

Great job Senator Franken! This sorta reminds me of the conversation that candidate Obama had with Joe the Plumber Whatever. Obama listened to his concerns and addressed them in a responsive and reasonable way while not feeding him pablum. It wasn’t all of what JtPW wanted to hear but Obama didn’t talk down to him and told him honestly what he was proposing.

Then the wingnuts got to work and twisted it in so many bizarro ways and that was Joe’s ticket to wingnut welfare. It’ll be interesting to watch the wingers twist Franken’s conversation here and see what odd, upside down meaning they’ll wring from it.

Cause you know they will…

Al Franken, on top of his senatorial duties, should be named Obama’s honorary “Czar of Wingnut Control.”