The American Spectator

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Landslide Al

By Nicole Russell on 11.20.08 @ 1:20PM

Right now, Senator Norm Coleman still holds a (tiny) lead over Franken (only 168 votes). But on the Star Tribune's blog, the Big Question, political reporter Bob von Sternberg does a little recount math and describes a hypothetical scenario that has Franken laughing all the way to the Senate:

Based on what the first-day totals of the Great Minnesota Recount hint at, the winner of the U.S. Senate race will/might/could be….Al Franken – by 12 votes, out of the nearly 2.9 million-ballots that were cast.

Here's how the numbers work: Franken started the day Wednesday unofficially trailing Sen. Norm Coleman by 215 votes. By the end of the day, with 18 percent of the state's votes counted, Franken had shaved that lead to 174 votes. If that pattern continues to hold in the remaining 82 percent of the precincts (admittedly a BIG if), Franken would pick up 227.7 votes. And that would leave him the winner, by 12.7 votes.

Point is, anything could happen, though this scenario does seem unlikely.  But then, so did Franken running for Senate, much less a recount into late November.