THE SMEARS AND MEMES CAN'T START TOO SOON

So the last paragraph of the AP story announcing that Al Franken is running for Senate is this:

"Franken faces major challenges, said Larry Jacobs, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota. Besides needing to establish himself as a serious candidate, Franken has staked out left-wing policies that make it questionable whether he can win independent voters, Jacobs said."

I wonder if Larry Jacobs, and by extension the AP, would have said such things if this had been a story about some rabid, neocon, evangelical Republican candidate. Is that what was said about entertainers-turned-Republican-officeholders Arnold Schwarzenegger or Ronald Reagan or Sonny Bono or Gopher from Love Boat--can't think of his name and don't feel like looking it up--when they moved from entertainment into politics? I don't feel like looking that up either, but I'm gonna guess that's not what was said--that they needed to "establish themselves as serious candidates" with "questionable" policies that'll turn off indie voters.

I mean, for Christ's sake, Franken himself has not even made the announcement, and already the AP is already running conservative talking points against him. Now Franken's spokesman should have--well, spoken--when the AP rang him up for a quote. But the AP sure seemed to know how to run right over the the chairman of the Minnesota Republican party for a damning quote--doesn't look like they attempted to contact the chair of the Minnesota Democratic Party. And is there only one political science professor in all of Minnesota? I mean, could the AP not find a single person that has anything to do with Minnesota to say anything halfway nice about or supportive of Franken?

I mean, the AP runs what amounts to a Franken hit piece on the occasion of his unofficially official announcement of his candidacy!