"Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary." - R. Niebuhr
Ask me anythingSubmit
The San Jose Mercury News has made it known who they support for governor of California, and it ain’t Meg Whitman:
[Whitman] has demonstrated through her campaign a loose relationship with the truth, a poor understanding of government and a penchant for platitudes. Her carefully packaged positions offer pat solutions for problems whose depth and complexity clearly elude her. We recommended her in the Republican primary over the shape-shifting Steve Poizner, but as the campaign has unfolded we’ve come to see that she utterly lacks the qualifications to be governor.
Whitman is spending more than $140 million on this campaign — breaking all records — largely to buy misleading ads and pay a herd of consultants to tell her what to say. Their aim is obvious, targeting various interests. What we don’t know is who Meg Whitman really is, how she thinks or what she values.
Whitman is no Sarah Palin - she has a brain and actually did something with her life. But she decided it was better to offer “platitudes” and manufactured outrage than real solutions. Better to play fast and loose with the truth than say what you’re really about. I suppose we’ll find out who the real Meg Whitman is if she gains office, but I have a funny feeling Californians will be worse off for it.
Frankly, if you can’t run on your own beliefs, you are a charlatan and a con artist. Or a Tea Party candidate Republican.
Republican 2010 strategy - don’t debate or do interviews
Heaven forfend people should find out your true views or beliefs. They might realize just how little they have in common with you. Or worse, they might see how supremely unqualified you are for the position of dog catcher, much less senator/governor/school board member/etc.
Better to run away from your past statements, reinvent/rebrand yourself as a Tea Partier, and let the Koch brothers (or Karl Rove’s foreign buddies) finance millions of dollars’ worth of ads to show off the new you.
Ah yes, the best democracy money can buy. “Citizens United”, indeed.
West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin is the Democratic candidate for Senate in that state, but you wouldn’t know it to see his latest ad. You know, the one where he shows off his National Rifle Association endorsement (and his rifle) and proceeds to plug the cap-and-trade bill full of holes?
Wow.
It just goes to show that while conservative Republicans may have common threads that tie them together, the Democratic party is a cobbled-together group of varied interests that sometimes work at cross-purposes. And that, my friends, is not always good for business.
