The Case for Vice President Al Franken

[Dan '82]

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2...ent-213756

Quote:This is not a joke. Senator Al Franken should be the Democratic Party’s choice for vice president.
If I had said that 10 years ago, or even six months ago, the notion would have been preposterous: a former Saturday Night Live writer, perhaps best known as the mock self-help guru Stuart Smalley, Franken became synonymous with left-wing bombast thanks to his best-selling book Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot. He took the presidency itself as a joke, writing a satirical campaign memoir, Why Not Me, in which Franken wins the White House on a platform of eliminating ATM fees, only to be quickly chased out by the “Joint Congressional Committee on the President's Mood Swings...

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/03/2016-elections-al-franken-vice-president-213756#ixzz4CHifZkw4
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[Eric the Green]

I like him and he's level-headed. He doesn't seem to be at the top of Hillary's list. Watching him on TV I wonder if he is energetic and articulate enough as a speaker.

I doubt Hillary has much to choose from, if we are looking for future presidential material.

[Bronco80]

I would prefer Franken to Warren, as Minnesota has a Democratic governor, but I still really hope she doesn't pick a senator at all.  Keep the Senate as strong as you can so you can actually get good legislation moving forward.

[Eric the Green]

(06-24-2016, 08:52 AM)Bronco80 Wrote: I would prefer Franken to Warren, as Minnesota has a Democratic governor, but I still really hope she doesn't pick a senator at all.  Keep the Senate as strong as you can so you can actually get good legislation moving forward.

The advantage of Warren over some other Democratic senators is that the MA governor must call a special election right away. If a good Democratic candidate to succeed her can be fielded (as opposed to Martha Coakley), the damage of Warren not being in the Senate will be very temporary.

However, I wonder what anyone can really do as vice-president, other than help the president get elected. Would Warren really be able to keep Clinton more progressive, or wouldn't Warren have to buckle under to lingering Clintonista neo-liberalism? Since no-one seems available who is future presidential material, with the possible exception of Warren (an equally-weak candidate to Hillary herself), it doesn't matter too much whom she picks.

What matters is whom she picks for such posts as Secretary of the Treasury. If she picks Wall Street bankers and financiers, then Sanders will have lost.

Good legislation going forward is probably not going to happen unless and until the millies get to the voting booth and vote out the Republicans and vote in progressives who will modify the 60% threshold for passage in the Senate and end gerrymandering so the House can be reclaimed. The most unrealistic pipedream is probably the idea that Republicans can be convinced to support "good legislation." If Obama, a powerful candidate who ran on a promise to make Washington work and end the polarization, can't succeed, what chance does Hillary have? Or Sanders?