Al Franken was born on May 21, 1951 in New York City into a Jewish family, and grew up in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. He is an American satirist, comedian, bestselling author, and radio host with a predominantly liberal point of view. Franken was half of the comedy duo Franken & Davis alongside Tom Davis which wrote for and performed for NBC's Saturday Night Live. Franken is considered one of the more popular liberal commentators. On March 31, 2004, Franken became host of Air America Radio's flagship program, The Al Franken Show. On June 30, 2009, Franken was unanimously confirmed the winner of a contested race for the U.S. senate from the state of Minnesota.

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• "Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it's a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from."
  • Oh, the Things I Know, 2002

• "When you encounter seemingly good advice that contradicts other seemingly good advice, ignore them both."
  • Oh, the Things I Know, 2002

• "The biases the media has are much bigger than conservative or liberal. They're about getting ratings, about making money, about doing stories that are easy to cover."
  • Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them, 2003\

• "We need to be pro-science; we have to go back to science."
  • Said at a Book Signing on December 4th, 2005 in Edina MN

• "I do personal attacks only on people who specialize in personal attacks." http://playboy.com/features/features/alfranken/

• " If you listen to a lot of conservatives, they'll tell you that the difference between them and us is that conservatives love America and liberals hate America.... They don't get it. We love America just as much as they do. But in a different way. You see, they love America the way a 4-year-old loves her Mommy. Liberals love America like grown-ups. To a 4-year-old, everything Mommy does is wonderful and anyone who criticizes Mommy is bad. Grown-up love means actually understanding what you love, taking the good with the bad, and helping your loved one grow. Love takes attention and work and is the best thing in the world."
  • Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them, 2003

• "What I do is taking what they say and using it against them. What I do is jujutsu.
  • Al Franken: God Spoke