Franken saying he'll run for Senate

I heard over the weekend that Al Franken was planning to run for U.S. Senate. Franken saying he'll run for Senate. For the record, I think that Al Franken is funny when he's not being partisan (and sometimes he's funny even when he is being partisan), but it's hard for me to imagine him translating to a "grown-up" setting. I don't mean that Franken isn't an adult or that entertainment is only for the immature, but I do think that Franken will miss the carefree, comedian's life and I think he'll have a hard time living out the parody.

I started this post on Saturday, and was probably not going to revisit it, then I came across this interesting NYT article about books written by candidates or "candidate lit." (Presidential Candidates as Authors). It's a good read, and this at the end reminded me of Franken's decision to run for office:

"Most of these books are going to be wastes of trees.” (They are also open to mockery. Recall Al Franken’s candidate-book spoof, “Why Not Me?,” written long before he became a real Senate candidate and adorned with a picture of Mr. Franken posing in a plaid shirt next to a golden retriever, and chapters with titles like “The Courage to Dare” and “Daring to Dream.”)

See what I mean?

Asides: those chapter titles from Franken's fauxbook shouted "Audacity of Hope" to me . . . and the article reports that Al Gore is planning a book called "The Assault on Reason." Gee, I wonder who Gore will be savaging in that book?