Al Franken's loyalty to Obama may hurt his re-election

President Obama's approval rating is at an all-time low, and new polling reveals that the majority of Americans consider his presidency so far to have been "a failure." Moreover, the general public's dissatisfaction is apparently affecting the way voters view the commander-in-chief's fellow Democrats.

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), for instance, is running a tighter race than expected in his re-election bid against Republican challenger Mike McFadden. Franken leads in the polls by nine points and is still favored, but Fox News reports "some observers see [Franken] as potentially vulnerable due to President Obama's low approval ratings in Minnesota."

The McFadden team is optimistic, and says the campaign has "changed dramatically" in recent days. "We see that [Franken] is clearly afraid. This race is much closer than people realize," McFadden campaign spokesman Tom Erickson told Fox.

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Terry Madonna, director of the Franklin & Marshall College Poll, told Fox the "biggest thing [Franken] has to overcome is his lineage to Obama."