I think I was as surprised as anyone as the polls keep coming out showing strong Democratic candidates losing ground and the Republicans surging ahead. I would think all the Democratic "consultants" would be huddled and strategizing and rethinking their game plans. The Republican "consultants" must all be thanking the Democrats and urging them to keep doing what they are doing.
Maybe I just don't understand this political gamesmanship, but most people I talk to are turned off by the way these campaigns work.
I have to say the Malloy/Foley numbers are a huge surprise to me. I really like Malloy and the conversations I have had with him just make you feel that he is genuine and sincere and someone that is willing to listen. I know that the majority of the time that persona can change after the election, but I think with Malloy, what you see is what you get, now and after November 2nd.
I've never met Tom Foley and have never seen him anywhere on the streets of Hartford. Maybe a wise choice on his part to avoid the political arena in Hartford without a good supply of bleach to cleanse with afterward.
Hopefully the upcoming debates will shed some more light on Foley, and Malloy for that matter, and we can see what they are about and their vision for Connecticut. I really don't care how big Dan Malloy's house is or what people in Georgia think about Foley 20 years ago. A newsflash for those that are trying to crucify McMahon and Foley for private business decisions- try to build a business and you will quickly learn that a safe government job living off the taxpayers is definitely the easier way to go.
Even the media has seemed to jump on the crucifixion. Today the Courant(among others) was hyping a story that Linda McMahon had laid off 10% percent of her employees at one point. Would it be better if she shut down and fired them all?
It was ironic that these stories were right along side another headline "Sikorsky Aircraft Eliminates 200 Jobs". Maybe Sikorsky was forced to cut American jobs because our Washington politicians allowed a huge helicopter contract for US forces in Afghanistan to go to a Russian company recently.
And let me ask an honest question here, do you really think Dick Blumenthal knew what the minimum wage amount was before they embarrassed McMahon about it yesterday? I strongly doubt it.
Then tonight I got one of the numerous negative e-mails that are sent out several times a day by "ctdems.org". If I wasn't still laughing over the earlier Hartford DTC e-mail about the fundraiser, I would have been chuckling out loud. The e-mail was entitled "Linda McMahon's Very Bad week".
Are "ctdems.org" reading the same newspapers I am? I don't think Linda McMahon could have had a much better week except if the headlines read "Blumenthal Drops Out". Blumenthal a few months ago was considered the unstoppable "heir apparent" to Dodd's seat. Now the polls show that Blumenthal has slipped so badly that he is in a statistical dead heat with that "awful" Republican wrestling lady. That sure doesn't sound like a "Very Bad Week" to me.
Then the headlines today that "WWE Defends Accepting Tax Credits". How is that bad that WWE, or any business, takes advantage of a government program that they are obviously entitled to? The article did not mention anywhere the millions of dollars that were pumped back into Connecticut's economy as a result of the WWE operations that qualified them for those same credits.I guess we should be prouder of our Financial Institutions and Wall Street that damn near sucked the life out of our economy until they received billions in bail out money, almost bringing our country crashing to its knees.
I just think people are fed up with politics in general and specifically negative campaigning. As one candidate lobs the first negative ad, the opponent retaliates with even more venom until it is totally out of control. In the end we know nothing about the candidates, what they stand for, what is their vision, why are they qualified. All we eventually know is which one can slide lower in the gutter.
I'll avoid any wrestling analogies here, I'm frankly tired of those also. (If wrestling is so bad, why would anyone know what the term "smackdown" meant, unless you were a follower). Maybe the better way to go would be a duel with pistols on the lawn of the Capitol at high noon. It would end the need for term limits and we would know that the candidates really wanted the job in the end.
Lets see some positive ads and learn what the candidates are about, not why their opponents are bad. Hopefully the poll numbers have shown the "consultants" that like politicians, they have lost touch with what is important to voters.
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9 comments:
"Maybe I just don't understand this political gamesmanship, but most people I talk to are turned off by the way these campaigns work."
Just think Kevin, those are people who actually follow politics. Most people I talk to have given up on the entire political system all together.
It makes me disappointed in Connecticut when I hear radio host Howard Stern (out of New York) bashing Blumenthal all this week.
Yesterday was about how Blumenthal tried to make a tough record by going after companies that misrepresent themselves or their products. Even to go so far as get himself (state) sued by that lady for being too aggressive.
He then hypocritically goes on to misrepresent himself by saying he was in the Vietnam War and begs for forgiveness.
So long to him. It's no wonder he was former pals with Eddie Perez.
Kevin:
I agree with you on the Dems dim awareness of what's going on here. Nationally and statewide (if not here in Htfd. for obvious reasons) people are waking up to the fact that the national and state ships of state have been on an unsustainable fiscal course for decades, and in recent years the Dem captains have doubled down. Way too late to rearrange deck chairs. We can see them sliding off the decks. Not the time to worry if the captain has a great pedigree. Malloy may be a nice guy, but if we get a Dem in the governor's office with the overwhelming Dem majority in the legislature we'll be on the bottom of the ocean in no time. Can't tell if Foley likely to emulate Christie in NJ, but he might. At least he's not kissing the arses of public sector unions like Malloy.
Actually, as I recall, CT has had a Republican governor for years, and we had had a Republican president for eight years when the economy collapsed. In fact, between 1968 and 2009, we only had 12 years of Democrats in the White House. So I have a hard time putting the blame for conditions in this country on the party that has been out of power more than it's been in.
The one major criticism of the Dems I do agree with is that as soon as they are in power, they form circular firing squads. The GOP doesn't do that, because they are all bound by the desire to make money and/or not pay taxes. Dems have no unifying issue like that, as they are basically just a bunch of interest groups under one umbrella who don't agree on much.
Anyway, anyone thinking putting the GOP back in power will make things better is deluding themselves. In two years or four years we will be back to 2008, when everyone couldn't wait to show the GOP the door. There are no easy answers to this country's problems, but Americans want easy answers that can be provided in 22 minutes (with commercials).
There are no easy answers to this country's problems
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What, we can't just borrow more money from the Chinese? Can't just spend to "stimulate?" We can't just tax the rich? Can't just pass thousand page laws to "reform" the medical sector or the financial sector?
But, here in the Nutmeg we don't have the ability to print money. Anonymousita: how would you propose closing the structural gap ($3.2 billion projected 2011-12) in the state's budget? Don't just blame it on Rell or Bush. What should we do now?
Peter -- Go back to FDR. The way you get out of a depression is to spend your way out of it. (I love how GOPers only care about deficits when it is Dems running them up -- Reagan's deficits? Great. Bush's deficits? Yay. Obama's deficits? War crime.
To answer your question, there are only two ways to close a deficit --raise taxes, which you can't do because people will scream and vote you out; or cut spending, which you can do except it will become obvious rapidly that you are shielding your party's personal favorites and slashing the other party's, and your measure will never get through the State House. Maybe a true bipartisan spending cut would be successful, but in the highly partisan atmosphere where people actually go on the air rooting for their leaders to fail, I tend to doubt it.
Anonymous:
I acknowledge that Governor Rell is a Republican. I don't think she's primarily responsible, but she undoubtedly shares responsibility, for the State's fiscal position. The Cato Institute gives her fiscal achievment an "F." Now what do we do about the problem going forward?
I say taxes are a necessary evil. They are inherently damaging to individuals and businesses. Therefor, they should be kept as low as possible. On the other hand, the State appears to have an ever-growing appetite for spending (and promises to spend in the future). I'd say the thing to do at this point is to cut. Some programs/departments are b.s. per se. Other programs/departments should be run at lower cost by paying fewer people lower salaries with smaller benefit packages.
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Peter -- Go back to FDR. The way you get out of a depression is to spend your way out of it.
Simply false. New Deal a failure as stimulus. Nor did W.'s increased spending on education and medicare get us out of the recession of 2000-01. But, not even Keynes thought state budget deficits stimulative, and it is becoming clear we Nutmeggers don't have the money in any case.
Governor Rell shares equally the blame for the dismal financial shape this state is in.She could have vetoed the budgets...but didnt.The Republicans in Washington DC spent like drunken sailors from 2001-2009 putting new entitlements on us and spent a few trillion of our treasure on an unnecessary war ( Iraq), which is THE major waste of money in our lifetime.
Peter YOUR Republican party increased the deficit from 2001 until 2009,made us less secure..neither cheney or Bush took the FBI's warning about Osama folks doing something in this country seriously and created far less jobs then in the Clinton years.
Yes, Rell could have vetoed, and the overwhelmingly Dem legislature could have overridden. The Republicans were in control of the DC legislature only through 2006. The Dems not only voted for the war in Iraq, but complained that W. didn't spend enough on No Child Left Behind and the Medicare Drug Expansion (brag that they fixed the doughnut hole with Obamacare). In other words, as bad as the Bush Republicans were on spending, the voter concerned with fiscal policy had, and has, no choice but to vote for them.
But, put all the partisan blame aside, though. What do you, Adam Smith, want to do NOW?
correction;
Senate Democrats voted for the Iraq war. House Dems didn't.
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