Students who ventured into Blue State Coffee for their caffeine fix yesterday were treated to more than just cream with their coffee. Minnesota Senate hopeful and comedian Al Franken came to the coffee shop Tuesday afternoon to mingle, deliver remarks and - of course - raise money.
Franken, standing at the center of the packed venue, immediately told the crowd why he was running for the U.S. Senate. America was once a great country, he said, and it could be great again.
"I'm running in Minnesota because I want to change the country," Franken, a Democrat, said. "I know our best days are ahead of us."
The crowd at the aptly named coffeehouse was appreciative of the satirist-turned-politician. They booed at the mention of his potential opponent, Republican incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman, and applauded when Franken assured them that he would win the seat.
Franken criticized Coleman's backing from special interest groups and large corporations, and declared his support for campaign finance reform. He proudly announced that, despite relying on contributions from individual supporters, he raised more money than Coleman in the first two quarters. "We need to break the stranglehold of big money," he said.
Franken had been in Boston to raise money for his campaign, but stopped in at Blue State for "something of a fundraiser" hosted by one of the shop's founders (and Franken's Harvard College roommate), Tom Clark.
"We're just doing a little pit stop for a little campaign cash," Franken told The Herald.
When asked for his thoughts on fellow comedian Stephen Colbert's presidential bid, Franken said satirists, like himself, are highly qualified for politics.
"What a satirist does," Franken said, "is look at a situation and find out all the inconsistencies and hypocrisy and absurdities and cuts through all the baloney and gets the truth."
"I think it's really great training for the U.S. Senate," he said.
If elected, Franken said he would focus on health care, the Iraq war and global warming.
Franken said the most important domestic issue facing America today is the country's lack of universal health care. "We have a system that is out of whack completely," he said. "We have to get to universal." He called President Bush's recent veto of the State Children's Health Insurance Plan "crazy."
On global warming, Franken called for conservation and the development of renewable energy sources, including wind, tidal and solar energy technologies. "We're America, we can do this, we just got to get our stuff together," he said.
Upon reaching the Senate, Franken would have to address the Iraq War, for which he said there are no good solutions. "We can't stay there forever, and there's nothing that says that all the bad stuff that's going to happen if we leave isn't going to happen if we leave two years from now," he said.
Franken urged the crowd to get involved in any upcoming congressional races and stressed the importance of several in helping the Democrats secure a larger majority in both chambers and make the Senate "filibuster-proof," he said.
Acknowledging Rhode Island's fully Democratic congressional delegation and probable support for a Democrat in the 2008 presidential race, Franken joked that Rhode Islanders should "raise money and send it to other states."
