Franken & McCain in The Atlantic

Two good reads in The Atlantic:

» He's Not Joking (Josh Green)
Josh looks at the Al Franken Senate campaign in Minnesota, highlighting the transition from satirist to political candidate. Obviously, Franken notes the strength of that connection:

"A satirist looks at a situation and sees the inconsistencies and hypocrisies, and he cuts through the baloney and gets to the truth," he often says when confronted by skeptics. "I think that's pretty good training for the Senate, don't you?"

That, of course, is the question that's ultimately before Minnesota voters. Franken, at his finest, promises to be something of a Wellstone 2.0 for Minnesota. And since he's running against the guy who replaced Wellstone in the Senate (on the heels of his tragic death), the storyline looks rich for the campaign.

What I don't think Green paid enough attention to in this article is the strength of Norm Coleman as a campaigner. I remember watching highlights of the 2002 campaign and thought Coleman to be every bit Wellstone's equal in terms of charisma, energy, and presentation. And as the current MN Governor, Tim Pawlenty, demonstrates ... it's not a cinch that Democrats win in this state even in the best of years for Democrats to be on the ballot.

» Mr. Conservative (Jonathan Rauch)
This just follows my own argument that Republicans and conservatism are increasingly becoming two different entities. Not that it'll stop Republicans from trying to identify themselves as conservative, mind you. Rauch focuses on the Burkean origins of conservatism and how far the current mold of Republicans falls apart from his model. The frame of his article obviously centers around the currently impending nomination of John McCain as the party standard-bearer. For years, Republicans have tried to tar McCain as liberal, some Democrats have daydreamed that he actually was, but McCain himself has always painted himself as a true representation of Reagan-style conservatism (and by some ounce of logic, closer to the Burkean model than George Bush represents). It ought to be interesting to see how that argument holds up in the course of a Presidential campaign.