For those of us who remember, Ventura ran an amazing race in 1998 for the governorship of Minnesota.  He waited until practically the last minute and spent only about a million dollars on his advertising campaign, running with fantastic ads including Jesse as an action figure fighting corrupt politicians.

Barkley addresses the issue of financing; given that both Coleman and Franken are breaking records with fundraising and spending:

MP: But this race may become the most expensive Senate race ever run with Franken and Coleman each spending $16 million. Can Ventura find that sort of money?

DB:  He doesn't need to. He'll get so much free press that they could each spend $60 million and it wouldn't matter. I think one of the hardest things we'd have to do is find enough time to handle all the requests for interviews he'd have.

MP: So how much would Ventura need to raise?

DB: I'd say $1 million to $1.5 million. If we could give [Bill] Hillsman [who handled Ventura's advertising campaign in 1998] a million bucks for the media campaign, that would do it.

Quite honestly?  After what happened in 1998, I believe him.  It was enough to get me to vote Independant that year (caveat: I'm voting Franken this year unless October comes around and Franken has no chance of making up the gap and Ventura does, on the theory that Not Coleman is better than Coleman), though the fact that the Democrat on the ticket was Hubert "Skip" Humphrey III, tweaking my dislike for legacy candidates, didn't help.

The last poll I saw had Franken down by 12.  With Ventura in the race, he's only down by 10.  This leads me to believe that, within the margin of error, Ventura takes away pretty much equally from both sides of the issue, but, as I've mentioned before, there's one target whose votes Ventura is going to particularly pursue:

MP: Ventura seems to have a special dislike of Coleman. What's that about?

DB: It goes back to the State Fair [of 1998].  Coleman was condescending to him. They were at the fair and Coleman came up to him and said, 'Oh Jesse, oh Jesse, you're getting the big crowds here but you can't win.' Totally condescending.

I get a chuckle knowing that Ventura made Coleman eat crow that year with his startling win.  Ventura will hit Coleman morning, noon, and night in TV interviews and in his sparing, but incisive advertising.  I'm not saying that he'll leave Franken alone, but I'm certain that he won't attack Franken on the point he's been weakest, his comedic past, because, given Ventura's own entertainment past, would seem hypocritical.  Barkley is certain that the major parties won't be able to keep Ventura out of debates: How do you prevent the ex-governor who is polling at 20%-25% from saying his peace?

Things weren't bad under Ventura, quite honestly.  Some will talk about how ashamed they were that their governor was sportcasting for the XFL in his spare time, but really that's gotta be small potatoes nowendays, with all the real abuses that government has heaped upon us.  Barkley suggests that Ventura's time as governor will help him:

All he has to do is say, 'Remember those Jesse checks?' Remember how we lowered the cost of license?  Do you like the light rail line? [Ventura pushed hard for it.] He even tried to change the way we fund road and bridge construction. Had we done what he wanted, there would have been more money and, who knows, maybe the bridge wouldn't have fallen down. But the Legislature voted down his plan.

The portion I bolded will play big here if Ventura pursues it.  Minnesotans are tired of politics as usual, because the fights between Governor Pawlenty and the legislature have gotten precious little done until the last year or so; the bridge dropping has prompted a spirit of bipartisanship and a willingness to break ranks at all levels, some out of true ethics, like the Veto Override Six, and others, like Coleman and Pawlenty, out of fear for their jobs.

Check out Larry King Live tonight (MN Post says 8 PM, that might be Central Time) to hear what Ventura has to say: the race could be a whole lot more interesting very soon.