Franken Gets Even Closer To Coleman In Recount

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports:

The U.S. Senate recount continued Thursday without major glitches across Minnesota, as tabulators and the volunteers watching them settled into an increasingly familiar routine of thumbing, counting and sorting.

With about 46 percent of the 2.9 million ballots counted by Thursday evening, the gap between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and DFL challenger Al Franken continued to close. Coleman was leading by only 136 votes, a drop from his unofficial lead of 215 that was confirmed Tuesday by the state Canvassing Board.

Franken's campaign said on Thursday that they're doing even better than early recount results suggest:

Speaking to reporters in person and on phone, Marc Elias, the Franken campaign's chief counsel, said that the early recount results (which decreased the margin separating the Democratic challenger and Coleman by 43 votes) actually underestimated the ground gained.

"We do in fact feel very good about how the first day of the recount went... We believe that through last night, 26.5 percent of the ballots were hand counted. And that represents slightly three percent more of the Coleman vote or Republican vote than was true during the election. And nevertheless we picked up a significant chunk of votes," said Elias. "In other words, the ballots counted yesterday were more Republican than the total ballot pool will end up being. It was a slightly redder pile versus what it will finally be. And not withstanding that slightly redder view, we picked up votes yesterday. In fact, we believe that number is higher than the 43 votes reflected on the Secretary of State's official margin."

Read more about the recount here.

Comments

[UltraClassic]

Count, count and count again. Sooner or later, the desired outcome will occure.

[hjfraser2002]

By whose desires are you refering to?

[mtflyer]

The true desires of the Minnesota voters!

[doctorwang]

The recount is mandatory under Minnesota state law. Both campaigns have access to the proceedings.

[anticon]

Timothy F. Geithner , treasury.

Another member of Council on Foreign Relations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_F._Geithner

[SCG]

What did you expect ?

[CVN65]

Anticon-conservatives are very suspicious of CFR as well. You are confusing conservatives with neo-cons. Neocons are democrats that want a strong military conquering the world in endless war. They left your party and joined ours, unhappily. You can have them back anytime.

[Durango]

Neo-Cons are not Democrats.

What are you talking about?

They are a subset of Republicans.

[CVN65]

ere-Do you have anything of interest to post? All I have seen is weak verse and repeated postings saying that conservatives are sissies or are stupid. It doesn't take a lot of intestinal fortitude to be a tough guy on the internet but you haven't shown any real wit or intelligence, either. Is your humor just too highbrow for knuckle-dragging cons like me to get?

[Durango]

I got it.

Thought it was clever.

[DubiousAtBest]

if you are a self-proclaimed conservative...Why are you HERE?

Must be really NOTHING happening in the GOP interweb tubes...

[SCG]

Bush is finally being greeted as the "liberator" of the Iraqi people.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/21/bush-effigy-burned-in-ant_n_145436.html

[Coyote2]

Folks if we want Franken to win, we could say a prayer to Coyote:

Our father in heaven (the sun)
our mother the earth
we are your people
and we grow strong
in the warmth of your smiles

[CVN65]

This was trick post, right? You almost had me until I remembered that libs don't pray! Good one.

[hjfraser2002]

I bege to differ on that praying thing.

PLease don't Stereotype.

It might be somebody you know and love.

[mtflyer]

I PRAY A LOT! And my prayers were answered on Nov 4 when McRage and Palehorse were defeated.

[mtflyer]

Those who have supported Bush and his criminal cronies had better be praying for forgiveness from God because there will be none given here!

[DubiousAtBest]

I pray that we've seen the death throes of the GOP and conservative crazoids such as yourself.

Guess my prayers were answered!

Later LOSER!

[brynn6]

Many liberals pray.
Neocons prey and pretend to pray.

[Coyote2]

In case you were interested....

Berkshire Hathaway shares have fallen by half from a year ago at over $5000 to under $2500 ea, yesterday.

Today's price ranges between $2600 and $2750.

[CVN65]

That is the stock market showing their near-universal love of socialism, anti-capitalism and the wonderful policies of FDR. You might think it funny that a bunch of rich, white guys are losing money but don't forget how many pension funds are hemorrhaging cash as well. Not so funny, then, is it?

[SCG]

Sometimes the tick must d!e so the host may live.

[Coyote2]

John Gutfreund did violence to the Wall Street social order"and got himself dubbed the King of Wall Street"when he turned Salomon Brothers from a private partnership into Wall Street"s first public corporation.

No investment bank owned by its employees would have levered itself 35 to 1 or bought and held $50 billion in mezzanine C.D.O."s. I doubt any partnership would have sought to game the rating agencies or leap into bed with loan sharks or even allow mezzanine C.D.O."s to be sold to its customers. The hoped-for short-term gain would not have justified the long-term hit.

Now I asked Gutfreund about his biggest decision. "Yes," he said. "They - the heads of the other Wall Street firms - all said what an awful thing it was to go public and how could you do such a thing. But when the temptation arose, they all gave in to it."

He agreed that the main effect of turning a partnership into a corporation was to transfer the financial risk to shareholders. "When things go wrong, it"s their problem," he said - and obviously not theirs alone. When a Wall Street investment bank screwed up badly enough, its risks became the problem of the government.

"It"s laissez-faire until you get in deep s_hit," he said, with a chuckle.

Michael Lewis (wrote Liar"s Poker)
http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/national-news/portfolio/2008/11/11/The-End-of-Wall-Streets-Boom?tid=true

[DubiousAtBest]

FDR SAVED this country.

If it weren't for programs such as Unemployment Insurance and Social Security set up by liberals, this current conservative financial disaster would be a full-blown 30s style depression.

Thanks to those liberal safety nets it hopefully won't be quite that bad this tome around.

[lwaxanatroi]

The wonderful policies of FDR gave us prosperity in the fifties. The socialistic policies of Eisenhower gave us a world-class interstate highway system. That commie Lyndon Johnson added Medicare to take care of seniors who were eating dog food so they could pay their doctors. Fanatical leftist Richard Nixon protected our air and water from free-market polluters. Yet the deregulators managed to persuade congress to deregulate the savings and loans, with predictable results as those s&ls went first crazy and then belly-up, costing taxpayers how much money? Then some bright light decided to deregulate energy--can you tell I"m writing from California?--and Enron stripped us bare with its market manipulations. Then another bright light figured out how to bundle bad mortgages into "securities" and another bright light decided to rate them AAA on the bond market, and the rest is history. The trouble with you Ayn Rand follwers is that you love the idea of pure individual greed as separating the supermen from the ordinary man until it's time to take the consequences. Then you call for the referee and demand a bailout. As many have said, socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor. If we're going to have socialism, can we have it for everyone, please? That's my retirement they're gambling with, and you're right; it's not funny at all.

[ere]

And now let the limericks begin
The tr0lls fear an Al Franken win
They come here to whine
Like they do all the time
Their small brains don't allow any facts in

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[hjfraser2002]

good one

[Freedomscap]

I saw on TV, where a 11 year old was still sleeping in the bed with the mother. I bet the child grows up to be a Republican.

[CVN65]

Why, is there a republican sleeping with your mother?

[breakingnews]

LOL!

[DubiousAtBest]

CVN65 IS an 11-year-old republican who slept with his Mom.

[nellie]

Coleman lead down to double digits:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/21/franken-camp-colemans-lea_n_145526.html

[ere]

hehe

This year is ending so well!

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[roshni]

Fingers and toes crossed for Franken.
Now we have to go "get" Chambliss so we can be 3 for 3.

[EllisWyatt]

Is this the kind of character that belongs in the U.S. Senate? I don't think so.

http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/warner-todd-huston/2008/10/17/al-franken-angrily-rushes-senator-coleman-after-debate-media-cam

This isn't the only time that Al Franken has allowed his seemingly delicately balanced temperament to be tipped to unseemly anger. In fact, he's allowed himself to be driven to physical violence in the past.

Watch the video

[ere]

aww, don't be afraid, you can still hide in your mom's basement, even if you lose your burger ki-ng job again

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[JettaBostonian]

NEWSBUSTERS?

~snicker~

[SeconLine]

They're more fair & much more balanced then Fox.

[WLA]

No way! Super-extremist wingnut "Newsbusters?"

[SCG]

That one's hard core.

[BronxBorn]

I'm so glad you didn't get the G.O.P meme.

[ere]

scared of real news sources too?

i think it would be easier and more efficient to list things you ARENT afraid of

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[JettaBostonian]

Poor tr0lls. Rendered irrelevant by the American public as a result of the election, they are reduce to coming here to snipe.

[WLA]

I don't feel sorry for them. They carried water for those who brought this country to its knees over the last 8 years. They can p!ss off.

[Freedomscap]

Shiznit613, thinks the morality of good actors and comedians are questionable. Yet, Bush lied us into Iraq. Does that raise a moral issue for you, Shiznit613?

[Coyote2]

The morality of Free Market Capitalism crusaders has been proven questionable.

~

[Bullwinkie]

Well it based its premise on "gluttony as a motivator and greed as a monitor and policing agent

[SCG]

They only apply their "morals" to others, haven't you noticed?

[Coyote2]

Precisely. Morality in the hands of the Right-wing is a hypocrite's cudgel used to smash their way into the White House.

[ere]

i doubt it

right wing sissies can hold 2 opposing viewpoints at the same time in their compartmentalized little minds

Examples:
Obama is a scary mu--s-lim and a member of a scary chri-stian church
All Democrats are on welfare and are also rich elitist snobs
Oil is a national security issue and should be left to the free market

Basically, they are not very bright

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[CVN65]

Yeah, ok. Black Liberation Theology is not Christian. The second one was close: The rich, elitist snobs dish out the welfare to buy the votes of the dumb and lazy. See, we think that they are all democrats but two different groups of democrats. On the third issue, it makes no sense to send hundreds of billions to the Saud family when we can drill for our own oil here. I can't believe that you have a problem with the "free" market- I thought you libs want everything to be free. Why is it that you think you are so smart, anyway?

[elr50]

The average educational level in Wasilla , Alaska is tenth grade. Yeah, not very bright.

[MichiganJFrog]

Dedicated to all our tro//s. We are very sorry you got left behind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn7vqUdG7lM

[SurferKit]

That's a good clip. I like Al as a comedian and writer. But I think he'll make an excellent senator. Even if I'm wrong and it turns out he's only half as good as Wellstone, that's much better than Coleman. I just don't understand Minnesotans voting for a guy like Coleman.

[WLA]

Coleman has a bright future in used car sales if he loses. With teeth like that, how can he not sell you a '06 Hyundai?

[ere]

Calling tr0ll central, calling tr0ll central

Please send out better tr0lls, at least the second string

These third stringers you got on the field are not challenging at all!

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[MontanaHome]

It's not even close, huh.

[breakingnews]

This is all they have left. The troIIs who had any decency slit their wrists at 11pm Nov 4th.

[ere]

They are more of the pill-taking types.

Too cowardly to cut themselves

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[tcuoohjohn]

This one is going to be an incredible squeaker either way it goes. The eventual winner will win with less than a 200 vote advantage out of nearly 3 million votes cast. The loser will forever wonder if that cancelled trip to Moose Falls, Minnesota might have made the difference.