In the 2008 general election, Democratic candidate Al Franken tried to unseat incumbent Republican Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman. Not surprisingly, former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, a proud independent, didn't like either candidate. "Franken's a carpetbagger. Coleman, on the other hand, he's your quintessential chicken hawk, " said Ventura on Hannity.
"Carpetbagger," a word from the civil war era, signifies a nonresident or new resident who seeks private gain from an area often by meddling in its business or politics. Franken grew up in Minnesota but hadn't lived there for over 30 years before deciding to move back and run for Senate. "If he loses this race I'd be very surprised to see if he keeps living in Minnesota," said Ventura.
"Chicken hawk," a term Ventura's used to describe many including Norm Coleman, Dick Cheney and George W. Bush, signifies someone who was too chicken to go to war when it was their turn to serve, but was a hawk when it came to send other people to war. Ventura said Coleman spent his college years protesting the Vietnam War but came back 30 years later, as a US Senator, and fully supported the Bush Administration's invasion of Iraq, a war Ventura feels is frighteningly similar to Vietnam.
So why did Jesse Ventura, as disgusted as he was with both parties and both candidates, decide not to run for Minnesota Senate? After all, he had already defeated Coleman once, during the 1998 race for Minnesota Governor. In addition, the people of Minnesota wanted him to run. "I had everyone on the streets of Minnesota telling me to run," said Ventura, "I didn't know what to do. I was pulled both ways."
Ventura admitted that he didn't make his decision until the last minute. It was 4 o'clock and "you had to file by 5," said Ventura, "It's a 30 minute drive for me to get down there." In other words, if Ventura would've waited any longer, it wouldn't have mattered whether he decided to run or not because he would've missed the filing deadline, thereby making him ineligible to run for the 2008 Minnesota Senate.
Recalling how he finally made his decision, Ventura said, "My wife looked at me and said well you've always believed in fate and destiny. She said why don't you flip a coin? And so I did. Heads meant I'd run. Tails meant I wouldn't. And it came up tails." Ventura's decision not to run, based off a coin flip, could've gone either way but Ventura's glad it landed tails because it frees him up for other things.
When Hannity asked Ventura if he'd like to run for political office again, Ventura said, "If I do it'll be for the big one because there's no point in going for the other ones. I can't make the changes that I feel need to happen in America, to bring us back to our constitution." Ventura also acknowledges that all of his political experience is in the executive branch of government so running for the Presidency in 2012 makes a great deal of sense.
"I've been in the executive branch as a mayor and a governor so if I run it'll be 2012 for the big one," he said.
Hannity vs Ventura on iraq war, us fascism, 911 (click play to listen)
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