If I were Franken, I'd take that footage and put a new soundtrack on it, one that explains that the "hard times" are the product of the Bush administration, and that opposing gas taxes means you don't care if our bridges fall down. I'd find out what on earth this ad means when it says Norm has supported "energy reforms" because it's very hard to connect that statement with his support for Bush's pro-oil energy policies.

If you're not inclined to like Coleman, this ad won't change your mind. Incumbents who rely on glib generalities are as much as admitting they can't run on their record.

Unfortunately, this ad isn't addressed to people who know much about anybody's record. Its target is middle-class white voters and it offers only a sympathetic voice. I hope we see some equally effective ads from Franken. He doesn't have to scorch Bush or Coleman, he just has to point to evidence of how much worse off we are - and the burdens being foisted on the next generation.

What a reversal of tone! The Bush administration unfortunately with Senator Coleman's support has shown little support for the lower and middle class. They have pushed an agenda of tax breaks and incentives that have helped the economic elite of our nation (eliminate the inheritance taxes--"death" tax, lower capital gains taxes, lower income taxes on the highest incomes). Senator Coleman and his Republican colleagues were very effective at getting things down when they controlled Congress. Now, with the passage to time, we know that they chose to do the wrong things much to the economic peril not of the wealthy but of the very people Senator Coleman is now claiming sympathy for. Tsk, tsk, the insincerity of this ad is appalling given the Republican and Senator Coleman's focus of his first 6 year term. Hopefully the audience that this aims at the middle class will immediately see that Senator Coleman is no Paul Wellstone. And his agenda is still one aimed at those making a $1 million or more a year.