Minnesota politics: Health care and some 2008 contenders

In an effort to personally keep track of 2008 candidates and where they stand on health care and disability issues, I've plans to be much more wonky. Starting with this brief analysis from the Minnesota Monitor of where MN candidates for U.S. senate -- Wellstone's old seat -- fall on a variety of important topics:

Michael Ciresi, DFL-Mendota Heights:

Health Care: Says fear of losing health care is "putting the American dream further and further out of [people's] reach."

Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn.:

Health Care: Supports Bush tax-credit plan.

Al Franken, DFL-Minneapolis:

Health Care: Supports universal health care for children.

Franken is no Wellstone, but here's some interesting commentary on him by Paul Hogarth:

... In his book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, Al Franken wrote the most eloquent and powerful chapter I have ever read about what transpired [at Sen. Wellstone's public memorial service]. In 29 pages, Franken shared the anger and outrage that so many of us felt about how we were never really given the chance to properly mourn Paul’s death. Calling it a “Case Study in Right-Wing Lies,” Franken rebutted every fabrication that was sent out through the right-wing noise machine in the days after the Service that tragically changed the Election’s outcome. On a gut level, there’s a certain poetic justice about having Al Franken be the candidate in 2008 who defeats Norm Coleman.

And here's a STrib article fleshing out Franken's health care stance a bit more:

Franken said the large number of uninsured people in the country end up costing government much more than if they were to have some form of insurance.

"I don't think it will cost us any more. I think it will be cheaper," Franken said. "Every other advanced country in the world has universal coverage and they all spend less than we do on health care."

Franken said he hasn't yet formulated a specific plan for universal coverage, but said a good first step would be extending Medicare coverage to all uninsured children.

It's early, of course. But we'll see where this all goes.