Q & A with Al Franken
The Reporter quizzes the former SNL comedian and Democrat who is running for Minnesota Senate in 2008
by Matthew Riggs
Issue date: 10/11/07
Section: Local and State News
Q: What have been your most significant challenges since you entered the Senate race?
A: The day to day of working 18 hour days (laughing), one day after another, and try to make sure that I keep my focus. And knowing when to stop and say, hey, it's time to take a break.
Q: How does your experience as a writer, radio personality and a comedian affect your campaign?
A: I think having done the radio show first of all, was a great way to prepare for this. I was doing 3 hours a day essentially on public policy and a great focus for that was on the war. I had journalists and authors who were focusing on that. People like George Packer, Tom Ricks, Peter Galbraith; many of these people were journalists who ended up writing books. But we also had General Charles Zinni who is a counterterrorism specialist and former Marine colonel and had academes like John Cole at the University of Michigan, an expert on Sunnis and Shiites.
We also had experts on health care and labor people and trade people, so it was three hours a day discussing the stuff I was reading that day, keeping this stuff in the news cycle, so that was incredibly valuable.
I think my years as a writer, has enabled me...I was also immersed in a certain part of the dialogue in this country, so I am aware of the smear tactics the [laughing] Republicans use in this country. They don't like me, a lot of them. I'm talking about the [conservative] right like the O'Reillys, the Hannity's and those people. And they're like the Karl Roves, the Karl Rove juniors, and the Roves the thirds. But also I was writing about things like social security and health care, and those kinds of things that were on people's minds. And I think that having been a comedian and a performer actually helps me in the performance side of politics and also with connecting with people.
Q: Where do college students' concerns such as tuition and the cost of higher education fall into your vision for what you would like to accomplish as Senator?
A: That's what I was doing here today. I just had a listening session with students and an administrator who is in charge of finance and financial aid. And it fits in because there is a basic phenomenon in America, which is this shift of risk onto the middle class. Part of that is [because of] our educational costs. You now basically have to have a college education in order to succeed, and yet in a way it's no guarantee that you will succeed.Â
But you have to bear the risk yourself by paying for it, and so many students end up with large loans and paying those off and working while they're in school. They really don't have the kind of guarantees people used to have to make a living, and then there is health care obviously.
But these are two areas of what I call the middle class squeeze and what other people call it [laughing]. It's an important part of this [policy], it's not just the students who feel this anxiety, it's their parents.
Q: How specifically do you intend to address these concerns?
A: Somebody had an interesting idea, sort of an ROTC program for oh, say teachers or people that are going to go into different areas of social work or something like that; where their loans can be forgiven if they come and work for several years in a certain kind of field, and I think that makes a lot of sense. For example, for someone who during school says, 'yea I'll teach in a high risk school or rural community,' or 'I'll teach in an Indian reservation,' so it's sort of like ROTC for other fields. I like that idea.
Matt Riggs is a Reporter staff writer>/i>
A: The day to day of working 18 hour days (laughing), one day after another, and try to make sure that I keep my focus. And knowing when to stop and say, hey, it's time to take a break.
Q: How does your experience as a writer, radio personality and a comedian affect your campaign?
A: I think having done the radio show first of all, was a great way to prepare for this. I was doing 3 hours a day essentially on public policy and a great focus for that was on the war. I had journalists and authors who were focusing on that. People like George Packer, Tom Ricks, Peter Galbraith; many of these people were journalists who ended up writing books. But we also had General Charles Zinni who is a counterterrorism specialist and former Marine colonel and had academes like John Cole at the University of Michigan, an expert on Sunnis and Shiites.
We also had experts on health care and labor people and trade people, so it was three hours a day discussing the stuff I was reading that day, keeping this stuff in the news cycle, so that was incredibly valuable.
I think my years as a writer, has enabled me...I was also immersed in a certain part of the dialogue in this country, so I am aware of the smear tactics the [laughing] Republicans use in this country. They don't like me, a lot of them. I'm talking about the [conservative] right like the O'Reillys, the Hannity's and those people. And they're like the Karl Roves, the Karl Rove juniors, and the Roves the thirds. But also I was writing about things like social security and health care, and those kinds of things that were on people's minds. And I think that having been a comedian and a performer actually helps me in the performance side of politics and also with connecting with people.
Q: Where do college students' concerns such as tuition and the cost of higher education fall into your vision for what you would like to accomplish as Senator?
A: That's what I was doing here today. I just had a listening session with students and an administrator who is in charge of finance and financial aid. And it fits in because there is a basic phenomenon in America, which is this shift of risk onto the middle class. Part of that is [because of] our educational costs. You now basically have to have a college education in order to succeed, and yet in a way it's no guarantee that you will succeed.Â
But you have to bear the risk yourself by paying for it, and so many students end up with large loans and paying those off and working while they're in school. They really don't have the kind of guarantees people used to have to make a living, and then there is health care obviously.
But these are two areas of what I call the middle class squeeze and what other people call it [laughing]. It's an important part of this [policy], it's not just the students who feel this anxiety, it's their parents.
Q: How specifically do you intend to address these concerns?
A: Somebody had an interesting idea, sort of an ROTC program for oh, say teachers or people that are going to go into different areas of social work or something like that; where their loans can be forgiven if they come and work for several years in a certain kind of field, and I think that makes a lot of sense. For example, for someone who during school says, 'yea I'll teach in a high risk school or rural community,' or 'I'll teach in an Indian reservation,' so it's sort of like ROTC for other fields. I like that idea.
Matt Riggs is a Reporter staff writer>/i>
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