Man, Al Franken is awesome. That's all I'm saying.

I said, here a few days ago, that I had not heard anything about Al Franken. I made some comments about him and voiced some concern about him. I got an answer to my question about Al Franken. Here is...

"When Senator Al Franken was confronted by an angry mob of teabagger/anti-healthcare-reform types, he calmly, rationally and intelligently talked them down, setting an example for how to conduct reasoned discourse that relies on facts and rationality rather than jingoism. "

via http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/09/franken_talks_down_angry_mob_a.php

About a dozen tea party activists staked out Sen. Al Franken's booth at the Minnesota State Fair and confronted him loudly when he arrived. But within minutes, he'd turned an unruly crowd into a productive conversation on health care. The discussion went from insurance reform, to the public option, to veterans benefits, to cap and trade. He made a few laugh and even told a touching story that moved a few to tears. A whole lot of common ground was found.Watch It:

From Indecision…Wow. This I'm gonna talk calmly and reasonably about the facts behind health care reform bit Al Franken's doing has got to be one of the least funny routine's he's pulled out in a long time…And, ya see, he got nary a single laugh out of this crowd of angry conservatives.I'll bet you they [...]

At around the 1:30 mark, he begins extolling the virtues of the Swiss health insurance system, which makes me swoon. Indeed, the Swiss system is highly effective, equitable and---counter-intuitively---it would not require drastic changes to be implemented in the US. The Swiss system is based on smart, super-stringent regulation and coordinated care (both around patients and at-large).

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) draws an unruly crowd at the Minnesota State Fair into a calm, productive discussion on health care reform. From DustyTrice.com.