No Running Jokes Here

Post-"SNL," Franken slashed conservatives and distilled his liberal worldview as an author, starting with his first book, "Rush Limbaugh Is a Big, Fat Idiot and Other Observations" in 1996. One of his books, "Why Not Me?" (1999), was a real art-imitates-life affair. In it, Franken imagines himself running for president as a single-issue candidate -- he's against ATM fees -- and winning.

These days, on the campaign trail and in interviews, Franken keeps the yuks to a minimum. He speaks energetically but cautiously, repeating and recycling the same bits of his stump speech. It's tough to throw him off message. Some of this discipline may reflect the tutelage of Mandy Grunwald, the veteran Washington political consultant who also advised Bill Clinton and Al Gore.

Indeed, Franken is plainly the most polished of the four leading Democrats vying for the nomination, each of whom showed up in Becker to address the candidates' meeting. His principal Democratic rival, Ciresi, is a tough-sounding but charisma-less bantam of a guy who stresses his legal victories over corporate opponents, including his role in the state's $6.1 billion settlement with the tobacco industry in 1998.

After the meeting, as Franken hangs around to sign autographs and pose for pictures, his talk seems to have impressed at least one couple, Gennady and Karen Bronshteyn, from nearby Elk River. "I'll vote for him," declares Gennady, a 39-year-old businessman. "He seems very knowledgeable about the issues. He's an advocate for regular people. I know what he's for and what he's against."

However, Karen, 41, a librarian who has read his books, recognizes Franken's potential weakness. "I imagine he's sensitive to the criticism that he's a comedian, that he's not serious," she says. "But I'm hoping [his fame] will help him win. I think he can win."

Franken still has some big hurdles to clear. A November poll taken by Survey USA found that 37 percent of voters viewed him negatively -- the same "negative" rating as Coleman. But while 36 percent expressed positive feelings about Coleman, only 22 percent of voters said that about Franken.

Some of the chilliness, Franken says, is a result of Republican efforts to tag him as a celebrity whose values are out of touch with Minnesotans. Franken shrugs it off. "When Minnesotans find out a few things about me," he says, sipping a milkshake in a deserted Becker coffee shop after his appearance at Gily's, "they'll find the caricature of me looks ridiculous."

Find out what?

That he grew up in Minnesota and was smart enough to get into Harvard; that he's been married for 32 years ("many of them happy," he can't resist joking) and raised two children. That he's volunteered for seven USO tours since 1999, entertaining U.S. service people in places such as Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. That he's been endorsed by 45 state legislators, and unions representing steelworkers, teamsters, firefighters and government employees.

One of Franken's most enthusiastic supporters is Michaels, the "Saturday Night Live" impresario. "Al was always a truth teller," Michaels says. "He just did it by being funny. . . . His strength and his weakness is, there's nothing he won't talk about. He can be brutally honest."

Perhaps as a result, Franken risks being framed as "the Ann Coulter of the Left," says Joseph Kunkel, a political science professor at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Unlike other entertainment figures who've run for office -- Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Fred Thompson or Ventura -- Franken can't easily escape his past by claiming he was merely acting, Kunkel says: "He is who he is. It remains to be seen if he can put the sarcastic stuff in the closet. He's always one comment away from putting his foot in his mouth."

Franken also seems to have left his flanks open on another issue: Iraq. Franken says he was "torn" about the run-up to the war, which suggests he toggled between opposition and support. In fact, he didn't. Franken has said on several occasions that had he been in the Senate in late 2002, he would have voted to support the resolution that gave Bush the authority to invade Iraq.