OW Oh, God!

AF Then I asked, “Does she have any idea what she wants to do?” Yes, she wants to be an actress. I thought, O.K., now it all makes sense. So, here are these two heavyweight journalists with a daughter who wants to be an actress. And they went with it. Didn’t fight it, at all. Did you go to college?

OW I did not.

AF A lot of politicians say, “I was the first member of my family to go to college.”

OW And I was the first member of mine not to. Luckily, my siblings made up for it. And the way my parents raised me had a really positive effect. Not to be impressed by anyone or anything shiny. They wouldn’t let me take shortcuts. But they trained me to believe that, with hard work, anything is possible.

PG Sort of like that Franken kid from Minnesota.

AF From St. Louis Park.

PG Let me end with a question about how your new book is being received: “Al used to be funny; then he ran for senator and hid his funny under a bushel. Now he’s funny again. So, he must be running for president in 2020.” But when you did the deal for this book, Hillary was going to be our next president, right?

AF This will throw your theory overboard, but it was even earlier than that. After I was re-elected [in 2014], my wife and I were going to have a vacation, six days at a lodge in northern Minnesota. But she got sick and stayed in Washington, so I had six days alone in a cabin. I’d always threatened to write about how I got into politics. But once I started, I was really having fun.

PG So “Fun with Franken” in 2020?

AF No, no, no.

OW I’m glad you wrote it. Your book made me more optimistic about our future.

AF Good. Because I think we have reason to be.