I am a former-Al Franken supporter who started having doubts about his candidacy this last winter. At the DFL district convention, I was with an "uncommitted" sub-caucus.

So, I am not a Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer partisan, but I don't understand why he doesn't merit consideration in media reports like Lahammer's. He has run an energetic campaign. He is somewhat known. He appears to be trailing Franken in delegates right now, but he still has garnered a fair amount of delegates.

What does the guy need to do?

And I understand why Walz keeps getting mentioned, but DFLers should be careful in their hopes. If they want to keep that seat, they probably need to keep Walz in the House. If an alternative to Franken is needed (and Nelson-Pallmeyer doesn't fit the bill), I wonder about some DFLers that have won statewide office recently. No, not Hatch or Swanson. Though they have both taken the AG office with wide margins, they *might* have problems with the party. What about Rebecca Otto or Mark Ritchie?

I truly cannot imagine a better candidate for U.S. Senate than Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer.

He would be a better Senator than either Franken or Coleman by a factor of thousands. Jack had the knowledge and foresight to oppose the war in Iraq, the courage to publicly debate Ramsted when the war was very popular, the gravitas to advise Paul Wellstone to vote against it. Jack understands that these wars for oil are making the world more unstable and the United States less secure. Jack understands that we truly need to be spending that money on sustainable energy production, which would make us all more prosperous and secure.

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer is also a more competitive candidate in the most fundamental sense. While the smears on Franken are entirely bogus noise originating from the Republican attack machine, truly Al Franken has never been a very good bet to oust Coleman. Franken has never had the positions that resonate with the progressive base of the DFL, and Franken has never had a style that resonates with the average Minnesota voter.

Jack is squeaky-clean, has a true moral compass, has the eloquence and foresight to represent our state better than anyone has for at least the last 6 years. Some misguided pundits may figure that Jack is simply too good for the job. I don't think so. I think we deserve the best U.S. Senator we can get, and I think that person is Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer.