Franken Update: Now Leading Coleman In Minnesota

I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much but, good heavens, would this be a sweet pickup if Al Franken could knock off Republican Norm Coleman in Minnesota's hotly-contested U.S. Senate race.

Coleman had been leading Franken for much of the summer but the tide has been turning in recent weeks -- helped along by some truly bitter, negative ads run by Coleman that appear to have blown up in his face and, at the very least, have sent voters toward Independent candidate Dean Barkley.

In a poll released over the weekend and conducted last week by Princeton Survey Research Associates International, Franken leads Coleman 43 to 34 percent, with Barkley picking up 18 percent of respondents.

This also coincides with even more bad news for Coleman, with the same poll showing his job-approval rating among Minnesota voters dropping to 38 percent, his lowest ever.

Pollster.com's trend estimate still shows Coleman with a slight lead over Franken, 41.4 to 40.0 percent, but the Republican seems to be slipping more with each week and the momentum for November 4 seems to favor Franken picking up another critical seat to add to the Democratic Senate majority.

Finally, here's a great television ad released by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee that makes great fun of the ridiculous attack ads Coleman has been running against Franken: