Of immense proportions.

Absurd.

Tina Smith is very well-respected; she has a long history in the party and a solid resume, and she's done a lot of the negotiating with the legislature. Dayton is no fool. He wouldn't have chosen a weak person for that seat. She will be supported by the DFL and women in particular; the likely opponent, Tim Pawlenty, is not well-liked here. She has a very good chance of winning, and being the incumbent by the time of the election is a definite advantage.

That said, I really wish Al Franken hadn't been unfairly driven out of the Senate.

Please elaborate, and any rationale as to why a blue state will turn red in the face of Trump's GOP imploding at every turn would also be helpful.

Word on the street is there's a blue tsunami coming next fall, and I am unaware Minnesota will be isolated from it.

Hope you are correct but it would be a mistake to take a blue wave for granted. When I first heard Tina was his choice, I was skeptical. Time will tell how she performs in the limelight. She has been almost invisible as lutenant governor from my perspective.

Thus would only have functioned as a placeholder. Is that true? Now it seems she's changed that to saying she'll run. Did she have her eye on the governorship?

Even if she were really gung-ho to be in the Senate, she's still coming in as low man on the totem pole. A novice who will have to learn on the job, gain experience, establish relationships. Oh well! Maybe after eight years she'll be the force Al Franken was.

Like other blue states, Minnesota's blue is really in the core of the Twin Cities. And many from outstate distrust the politics of the Twin Cities where PC is often runs amok. Where activists disrupt meetings of boards to shout their extreme ideas.

She certainly has more chance of winning red Minnesota than, say, Keith Ellison or even Franken, again.

and said so several months ago. I really don't know much about her and, after expressing no interest in being governor, I was surprised she wanted to be anything but a placeholder in the Senate, but apparently she does.

We'll see if anyone challengers her for the seat at the caucuses or later in the primary.