Franken ad "rant" actually a Wellstone imitation

When you watch the clip out of context, or with the volume turned off, it's easy to assume Al Franken is very mad about something.

The DFL senate candidate is seen waving his arms and shouting, so you wouldn't guess he's simply getting into character for a story he's told many times along the campaign trail.

That's exactly why it works so well in a National Republican Senatorial Campaign spot designed to paint Franken as out of control and lacking the temperament required to be a United States Senator.

In reality the Democrat's apparent "rant" is his imitation of the late Senator Paul Wellstone, as he relates a story Wellstone's son David told him.

The younger Wellstone said his father would run along side him during the final stretches of cross country meets and yell words of encouragement.

"He'd go 'you can take this guy! You can take this guy! You can take 'em!" Franken often says in speeches, quoting David Wellstone's account of his totally involved sports parent.

For Franken the anecdote is used to build to his main point in that part of his standard stump speech, to wit:

"Well, I'm takin' Norm Coleman!"

But those silent animated gestures and intense facial expressions, in the context of a television ad questioning Franken's ability to control his temper, creates an entirely different impression.

"The first time I saw this ad I assumed it was something he'd done during his Air America days and had been captured on video," University of Minnesota advertising and consumer behavior expert Ron Faber told KARE 11.

He said voters have come to expect political ads to be filled with exaggerations, lies, half truths and words taken out of context. And yet the use of this particular clip seemed especially misleading to him.

"But this one would be really hard to imagine the context it really came from," Faber remarked, "So it's probably a little worse than most."

Incumbent Republican Senator Norm Coleman is the beneficiary of the ad, but by law he can't control the content of third party advertising. This particular spot was produced and paid for by the NRSC.

But when Fargo radio station WDAY asked Coleman about the basic fairness of the Wellstone imitation clip being used out of context, he said voters still have plenty of reasons to wonder about Franken's temperament.

"I don't think there's any question who Al Franken as been," Coleman told WDAY, "Folks have to decide is that the kind of temperament that they want to represent them, not whether this is a good clip."

Coleman added, "But there are ten other clips of Al Franken doing the same thing that aren't imitations."

The U of M's Faber said the back and forth negative ads, and even the fact-checking reports revealing which parts are true and which are false, all contribute to a larger problem for the democratic process.

"What it does is it makes the average voter feel like you can't trust any politician and it just manages to destroy any faith in the system," Faber said.

"And that scares me."

By John Croman, KARE 11 News

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