It's official -- Al Franken's campaign for the U.S. Senate is no joke

Mrs. TV Barn is a native Minnesotan, and she has seen it all in Minnesota politics — Harold Stassen, Jesse Ventura, the bleeding-heart schoolteacher who won over a Republican district — but even she wasn't ready for this.

Al Franken is still running for the United States Senate. And between him and his opponent, incumbent Norm Coleman, you'll never guess who's become the serious one.

This 30-second spot, released late last week in response to continuous attacks on his past life in comedy, pretty much tells you where the Senate race in the Gopher State stands right now:

It's still a razor-thin contest, though in recent days some pundits have shifted from calling it a toss-up to giving the edge back to Coleman. The reason? Surprise surprise, Al Franken can't convince Minnesotans he's a serious candidate.

No one running for office has more media savvy than Al Franken, and I'm including the two major presidential candidates in that pool. (John McCain, for all of his grumping about media bias, has tons more TV experience than Barack Obama does, and over the years it has been — with the exception of a two-month period during the 2000 primaries, when Karl Rove's attack dogs were unleashed — overwhelmingly positive for McCain.)

Franken has done everything right with his latest TV commercial. The tone is serious, the message is focused, and he successfully serves the ball back into Coleman's court, forcing him to answer to much greater sins than politically incorrect humor. And yet ... the observer cannot help but notice that the suit and study used in the 30-second ad bears an uncanny resemblance to the cover of Franken's first big political bestseller, Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot And Other Observations.

So in a very real way, Franken's three-decade-long effort to build his brand has served him all too well. Remember when CBS tried to do "edgy" Fox-lite programs like "Central Park West"? This is kinda the reverse of that, edgy trying to be stodgy.

Franken's comedian past may not seem like it should be a big deal, but I think Minnesotans are being rightly cautious. Had Franken chosen to run for the Senate in any other state of the Union besides the one state that put a professional wrestler in office, who turned out to be a big fat (as in steroidal) joke, then maybe he could push this issue to the side of the road where it probably belongs. But you know the old saying: "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, win re-election" ... er, well, something like that.

It's interesting to contrast Franken with his longtime friend Garrison Keillor. The bard of Lake Wobegon now takes his admirers on weekly fishing trips to Lake Bush-be-gone. But he can do that since he is not running for office and, therefore, not looking to expand his base. Franken, on the other hand, wants to have a dialogue with more than the people who despise Norm Coleman. For a few weeks there, he needed to work on getting the anti-Coleman forces together after a bruising DFL primary (that's the banner Minnesota Democrats run under). But that's happened now, and after enduring the "rockiest stretch" of his campaign, marred by an old Playboy article and tax problems, the election is "his to lose," argues Nation writer Alexander Zaitchik.

I'm not so sure. The fact that Franken has to put on a suit and tie and make that 30-second spot means that he is still struggling to initiate that dialogue with independent voters. The ad is aptly titled, "No Joke." We'll see who laughs last.