[Speed Gibson,
Monday August 27, 2007 at 7:30am]
Al, um, Franken
I did a year with Toastmasters, doing my ten speeches, earning my Competent Toastmaster pin. A key component of evaluating speeches is actually counting all of the ums, ers, and ahs.
So, I appointed myself the "ah counter" watching U.S. Senate DFL hopeful Al Franken on Almanac this week. I counted 51, not to mention any number of broken sentences. His competitors Ciresi and Cohen were near flawless, but to be fair, they're seasoned attorneys.
Franken isn't exactly light on his feet intellectually, which probably explains why he gets abusive when losing an argument. He can write well, he can deliver written material well, but several times on this appearance, Franken was clearly unable to think and/or present his thoughts coherently under fire.
This in fact was how his radio program generally operated. He would begin the hour obviously reading something he or the staff wrote, and it sounded very professional. But once done, and once taking even the friendliest of callers, the stammering and wandering began to fill the rest of the hour.
That's not to say Mr. Franken won't be the nominee. I think he won the "debate" tonight, and I think he'll be the DFL standard bearer. But he's going to have to get a lot better before taking on a verbal master like Senator Norm Coleman to have any chance of winning.
So, I appointed myself the "ah counter" watching U.S. Senate DFL hopeful Al Franken on Almanac this week. I counted 51, not to mention any number of broken sentences. His competitors Ciresi and Cohen were near flawless, but to be fair, they're seasoned attorneys.
Franken isn't exactly light on his feet intellectually, which probably explains why he gets abusive when losing an argument. He can write well, he can deliver written material well, but several times on this appearance, Franken was clearly unable to think and/or present his thoughts coherently under fire.
This in fact was how his radio program generally operated. He would begin the hour obviously reading something he or the staff wrote, and it sounded very professional. But once done, and once taking even the friendliest of callers, the stammering and wandering began to fill the rest of the hour.
That's not to say Mr. Franken won't be the nominee. I think he won the "debate" tonight, and I think he'll be the DFL standard bearer. But he's going to have to get a lot better before taking on a verbal master like Senator Norm Coleman to have any chance of winning.