07-26-2016, 03:53 PM
quote:
Originally posted by HiloPuna
BillyB
I hope you don't get hung up on James W's use of guilt by association rejection of Wally Lau. The reason is that this is, like it or not, a two horse race in the primary. So you are either going to have a vote that is part of the electorates decision (whether we are going to extend the electoral season to the General for the Mayors race) or not. And that two horse race is Wally and Harry.
Anyone who has an argument with this is perhaps in need of a reality check....the best analogy currently would be those Bernie supporters heckling HRC on the convention floor. At some point they have to look at the real politik and participate in the most meaningful way.
I like Marlene, known Archie and her for more than 20 years. Lot's of respect.
I think Pete Hoffman is the most cogent and articulate of the candidates, and that's important to me.
But at the end of the day, given their resources and the difficulty in getting their message to the electorate, they are not going to catch up with Harry's name recognition advantage or Wally's ability to promote his campaign into a competitive position. After all, the customary first test of a candidate is their ability to build and manage a campaign.
That's just the facts.....
Due to an inordinately long spell in the publics view Harry got to skip that step, and in my opinion we suffered due to his obvious lack of administrative skills. His was a hands off, passive/aggressive leadership style that was fine so long as we were in boom times. The legacy of that was a HUGE increase in public employees.
But thats no obvious reason to elect a 77 year old man with serious health conditions whose already been there with little to show for it and offers nothing for the future except "trust me". I haven't seen anything more substantive than that from him in this campaign other than general support for TMT, geothermal, and solid waste solutions. And I know him well enough to know that he changes his mind, or doesn't speak his mind plainly, often.
I really don't appreciate the comparison between voting my conscience in a primary with over a dozen candidates and the heckling being done by a bunch of spoiled children at the DNC, not the same thing at all. I've generally appreciated your contributions to the political discussion but that was just insulting.