Summary

With the general election underway, Franken turned his attention to his Republican incumbent opponent Norm Coleman. As Chapter 18’s title suggests, Coleman’s campaign attacked Franken as a “tax-dodging, rape-joking pornographer for Senate” (145). Franken even found himself in awe of his opponent’s skill transforming the old DeHumorizer into a “DeHumanizer, portraying [him] not just as a foul-mouthed comedian, but as an actual monster” (149). Despite trying to keep the rhetoric surrounding the race focused on Coleman’s lackluster record as a Senator, Franken was slowly losing ground, until, in his words, “Franni saved the campaign” with an extremely personal interview in which she opened up for the first time about her struggle with alcoholism (151). “Franni wanted to tell Minnesotans who [Al] really was,” which she did by putting herself directly in front of the camera and confessing that even though her struggle was...