Back during the Republican gubernatorial primary campaign, after one of the many debates someone asked us if we watched. Internal response was, “Why the fuck would we?” External response was, “No.” It might have had a little bit to do with the candidates, but a whole lot to do with the office and level of political polishing. For most debates for higher office, they’re totally stone-cold boring and contain no new information. Just a competition to see who could most artfully chop up their stump speeches into timed segments. So let’s kill the debates.
Most of the presidential debates, and they began in the summer of 2007 for chrissakes, were just exercises in waiting for the freak candidate to say something weird or drinking games for people who find it hard to get obliterated without rules and points. In races with a lot of people, many candidates say very little and even less of actual import. They would be better served with covering themselves with bumper stickers and turning about for the cameras.
Democratic gubernatorial nominee Vince Sheheen decided to a new twist on an exceptionally old trick — did the staff get high and approve this? — by challenging GOP nominee Nikki Haley to fucking Lincoln-Douglas debates. A whole mess of ‘em! And stories were written far and wide. This comprises the vast majority of all action regarding debates. Candidate A proposes something a little out of the ordinary. Candidate B says bah to that. Then so many news stories. It’s just a method to generate news coverage. As a result, most of the people who actually give a damn are those who are directly involved, and nobody else cares.
In that way, more than 90 percent of all political debates between candidates are little different than the presidential nominating conventions. No, they’re actually very much worse. Conventions have political memorabilia to buy, the occasional famous person sighting, entertainment by famous people (this applies mostly to Democrats, or to your definition of “famous”) and those wonderful hospitality parties thrown by big corporations and special interests that have the open bars and free food. Debates, even high-level debates, don’t come close. The best swag you’ll bring home is a press pass bought off some writer at the hotel bar. And about 90 minutes of sheer boredom.
Lower ballot race debates could be worthwhile, but if you’ve had to sit through multiple city council debates or watched State House candidates go at it in some back room in BFE with 11 people attending, you’d agree that the news value is negligible. Columbia would be better served by having the city candidates debate in front of the Metro desk reporters and save everyone else the trouble.
But here’s the connection between the debates and the conventions: as former DNC chairman Don Fowler taught us at Carolina, conventions never help a campaign and if they have effect, it’s bad. Fowler pointed to RNC ’92 in Houston and his own DNC ’88 in Atlanta as examples. The same goes for the debates. They’re only particularly newsworthy and have an effect on the campaign if somebody seriously fucks up, as in George H.W. Bush in ’92 in Richmond (looking at his watch) or Al Gore in 2000 (le sigh).
Discussions, like among the Pub Politics crew or the fabulous C-SPAN broadcast of William F. Buckley and George McGovern from several years ago are different matters altogether. People sitting down with different points of view and talking about them can elicit interesting commentary and analysis. And jokes that aren’t pre-scripted. Operatives, former pols, reporters who are allowed an opinion — Lee Bandy at the Dan Rather thing in ’08 was great — these are people close enough to the action to really know what’s going down, but removed enough to actually say something worth listening to.
But these candidate debates, they’re moribund, they’re out cold. It’s toe-tag time.
Democratic senatorial nominee Alvin Greene is going to another campaign-stop nosh. Time to get the cops on the phone, already. When he showed up an an Oconee Democratic Party event at a Seneca restaurant last week, national headlines followed. Because you know, he was indicted for showing porn to a college student and all, so the local Dems disinvited him. But you can’t keep a Greene man down. Or his staffers, as Dottie Sue Maggart-Feldman proved by getting into a shouting match to the point where the police showed up and closed it down.
Today, he’s appearing on radio in Charlotte — that’ll be a riot, for sure — then going to a York restaurant for an event. Fortunately for Greene and the local law enforcement, the Democratic group that was going to host it removed its sponsorship.
Event organizer Will Bigger says Alvin will be given time to talk to voters, then a moderator will ask him questions submitted by voters and reporters.
The event was originally sponsored by the Western York County Democrats, but Bigger says the organization pulled its invitation after Greene was indicted on two charges earlier this month, including a felony count of showing pornography to University of South Carolina student.
Maybe no yelling and law enforcement this time?
Back in June, Bill Chumley made a surprise upset of Rep. Keith Kelly in the Republican primary for House District 35. The campaign, according to the disclosure reports, appeared to be chronically underfunded. But, there seemed to be a lot more spending going on. Then the July 10 reports come out, and there’s nothing showing the stepped-up effort. Somehow, only $12,000 was spent between late May and mid-June? And slightly less than $2,000 in expenditures were showing on the pre-election report?
Hm.
Mind you, Kelly spent more than double that during the same period of time. This is either the most incredible stretching of dollars, ever, or something else was going on. We were told that the invoices weren’t received before the reporting time. However, in this economy, even consultants are hurting for cash. Really — we’ve heard of politicians taking their time to pay off invoices, but not sending them out in a reasonable time is a first.
Democratic senatorial nominee made another of his rare attempts to leave the Manning city limits on Sunday to, of all things, go golfing. Lowcountry resident Gary Shea invited Greene down to Murrells Inlet course Indigo Creek Golf Club just to find out who the man was, if anything. The idea of actually following through with taking Greene along to hit some balls around is simply genius.
Shea said he’s not a political person but wanted to get to know Greene better. Still, he was careful about approaching Greene on a couple of subjects.
“I did ask him about the bobblehead-doll-action-figure thing,” Shea said.
At the beginning of July, Greene attracted quite a bit of attention when he proposed making Alvin Greene toys as a way to create jobs. “Another thing we can do for jobs is make toys of me, especially for the holidays. Little dolls,” he had said.
Shea said it didn’t come across that way, but “it was just a metaphor. He said his real goal is to help improve the economy, and some of that has to be done through retail and creating jobs. If he had said he really wanted his own bobblehead dolls and action figures, well. …”
Greene took off early from the outing, which was chalked up to the heat, though we’d throw it in with his erratic behavior that South Carolinians have come to expect. What would have been good — really good — is if Larry David showed up on at a golf course down there and to satisfy his curiosity, brought Greene along with his foursome. Really, the guys at “Curb Your Enthusiasm” have to get on top of this for the next season. The chances for comedy are limitless.
The approved one-sided story. It’s not an everyday occurrence, but not unusual for your average daily newspaper. Like, say, The State‘s story today on the elections. Put that one through your noggin: you have to write a story about Democratic prospects in November from the perspective of the Democrats (and one Republican), while trying not to make it sound like a news release. Pain in the ass. However, stepping away can give you some insights.
For instance, how state Democrats are putting the best face possible on an election cycle that could end up as a spectacular failure. The first thing the average person would look at is the Alvin Greene debacle, added to the inability to run a full slate of statewide candidates who are properly funded and have a puncher’s chance. Independent gubernatorial candidate Morgan Bruce Reeves has received more press than several statewide Dems. So what do you do? Play up the four with a chance and hope for the best.
Democrats have put up a field of candidates for statewide office this year the party thinks is as strong as it has had since the days the party dominated South Carolina.
Robert Barber, Ashley Cooper, Frank Holleman and Matthew Richardson represent a long-sought mix of fresh faces and new ideas the party has been longing for, say political observers.
Add to that combination a good dose of political competency, youth and experience, and the party thinks it is onto something in the fall.
Sometimes you just have to put on your best face and keep on trucking. Certainly those four are good candidates. They might even have had a chance in a state that is trending a tad more purple, like North Carolina or Virginia. In 2006 or 2008. But this is 2010, a Republican year in a Republican state. So many members of the GOP want to run for office, the primaries were jumping.
Competitive primaries, far enough out from the general to allow a closure of ranks, get your candidates’ names out there and gets the party voters energized. It says a lot about the political climate of South Carolina that so many Democratic nominees were uncontested and that known quantities decided not to get close to many of the races.
As we move closer to Election Day, Slate has begun a new handicapping game called Lean/Lock, in which you predict who will win a selected group of gubernatorial and congressional elections. The way it works is, you take your own knowledge of the races, the current Pollster.com averages and others’ picks to decide whether you want to lean toward one candidate, or lock your choice. Here’s where the strategy comes in — you lean for races you’re not sure of, then locking it when you’re certain. But, the earlier you lock a race and picked the correct candidate, you accumulate 20 extra points per day.
It’s pretty easy to do — just go to the page, sign in through Facebook, make your picks and bang-o, there you go. The final tally won’t be until the elections, but Slate‘s keeping a running leaderboard as if Election Day was today. It’s a nice little time waster. Even South Carolina has a couple races on the list. As for us, we decided to commit to most of the races early, screw the indecision.
WR LEAN/LOCKS
Hypothetical score, Aug. 22: 2042 out of 2490
SENATE
Arkansas Senate: Blanche Lincoln (D) v. John Boozman (R), Lean: Lincoln
California Senate: Barbara Boxer (D) v. Carly Fiorina (R), Lock: Boxer
Colorado Senate: Michael Bennet (D) v. Ken Buck (R), Lock: Bennet
Connecticut Senate: Richard Blumenthal (D) v. Linda McMahon (R), Lock: Blumenthal
Illinois Senate: Alexi Giannoulias (D) v. Mark Kirk (R), Lock: Giannoulias
Indiana Senate: Brad Ellsworth (D) v. Dan Coats (R), Lock: Coats
Kentucky Senate: Jack Conway (D) v. Rand Paul (R), Lean: Conway
Louisiana Senate: Charlie Melancon (D) v. David Vitter (R), Lock: Vitter
Missouri Senate: Robin Carnahan (D) v. Roy Blunt (R), Lock: Blunt
Nevada Senate: Harry Reid (D) v. Sharron Angle (R), Lock: Reid
New Hampshire Senate: Paul Hodes (D) v. Kelly Ayotte (R), Lock: Hodes
Ohio Senate: Lee Fisher (D) v. Rob Portman (R), Lock: Portman
Pennsylvania Senate: Joe Sestak (D) v. Pat Toomey (R), Lock: Sestak
South Carolina Senate: Alvin Greene (D) v. Jim DeMint (R), Lock: DeMint
GOVERNOR
California Governor: Jerry Brown (D) v. Meg Whitman (R), Lock: Brown
Illinois Governor: Pat Quinn (D) v. Bill Brady (R), Lock: Quinn
Massachusetts Governor: Deval Patrick (D) v. Charlie Baker (R), Lock: Patrick
Ohio Governor: Ted Strickland (D) v. John Kasich (R), Lock: Strickland
South Carolina Governor: Vince Sheheen v. Nikki Haley (R), Lock: Haley
Texas Governor: Bill White (D) v. Rick Perry (R), Lock: Perry
HOUSE
California 11: Jerry McNerney (D) v. David Harmer (R), Lock: McNerney
Colorado 4: Betsy Markey (D) v. Cory Gardner (R), Lock: Markey
Idaho 1: Walt Minnick (D) v. Raul Labrador (R), Lock: Labrador
Michigan 1: Gary McDowell (D) v. Dan Benishek (R), Lock: Benishek
Nevada 3: Dina Titus (D) v. Joe Heck (R), Lock: Heck
North Dakota At-Large: Earl Pomeroy (D) v. Rick Berg (R), Lock: Berg
Ohio 15: Mary Jo Kilroy (D) v. Steve Stivers (R), Lock: Stivers
Virginia 5: Tom Perriello (D) v. Robert Hurt (R), Lock: Hurt
Anyway, have at it, boys and girls.
There’s about zero we like about Sarah Palin. She peaked with us after a Wonkette post showed her unveiling the Alaska quarter while sporting knee-high leather boots and a rather fetching skirt. Then, we weren’t subject to two of her most irritating qualities, which are what she says and the accent she says it in. Then U.S. Sen. John McCain had to let his staff push her on him and America and all was lost, forever. Lately, her whole “mama grizzly” schtick has become simply too much.
But God forbid a liberal group leave that awful trope alone. EMILY’s List is all over this, placing liberal mothers in bear suits. Guess all we can say is kudos for them for finding people willing to put on these outfits and go on a video that is viewable worldwide. Really, we know some Democratic moms who can’t stand Palin’s song-and-dance, but we’d be hard-pressed to see them donning a furry bear getup and going on camera.
Bessemer, Alabama. A place you’re not likely to go to, unless you’re dragged by family to The Bright Star, a locally-famous restaurant. It’s an industrial suburb of an area in which the specific industry it was built to service began to skip town about 30 years ago. How do you make national news running for mayor of this fine city? Do a poor Photoshop job of placing the candidate in a picture with the state’s most recognizable (living) football coach and place it on campaign material.
“Coach Saban has not been contacted for a political endorsement of any kind,” Associate Athletics Director Jeff Purinton wrote in an e-mail response to questions from The Birmingham News.
Davidson, when contacted about the campaign ad and photo on Tuesday afternoon, at first said the image of her and Saban together was real and taken about three weeks ago. However, when presented later with a 2007 photo of Saban and his wife that appears to be the base photo onto which Davidson’s image was added, the candidate acknowledged that her image was digitally added to the 2007 photo.
“They said we could do it this way,” Davidson said.
It doesn’t take Joe Friday to begin to punch holes in the councilwoman’s story. First she says it was real. Then admits it’s not, but they were given permission. Then the campaign manager says his dad is tight with Alabama coach Nick Saban and got the OK on the golf course. After several hours of talks, internal investigation and the final result of ham-handed crisis management, the campaign manager said, yeah, he lied about everything.
The man who has been managing Bessemer Councilwoman Dorothy Davidson’s campaign for mayor this afternoon said he tricked Davidson into believing she had an endorsement from University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban.
Kevin Morris, 35, said he is responsible for the campaign flier that features a digitally altered picture of Davidson and Saban and touts an endorsement by the coach.
Morris said he told Davidson the photo of the coach and his wife, Terry, was actually of Saban and his mother. He said he told Davidson that Saban had OK’d the altering of the photograph.
How this guy thought he could get away with this ruse is simply incredible. Everything, everything Saban does in Alabama is news. Did he think he could pass out a few flyers in Bessemer and it wouldn’t at least make it to Birmingham, when reporters surprised by the coach stepping into politics would start investigating?
If you’d pick out one area, and let’s say it’s a Southern area, to classify as the “asshole of the United States,” many places would have to beat out the entire state of South Carolina for that honor, even in the wake of the Alvin Greene comedy of errors. Good portions of southern Georgia, southern Alabama, eastern Tennessee, northern Louisiana, most of Mississippi and close to all of Arkansas. The Natural State really is tops in the running, if you’d slag an entire state. Corporate chicken farms, Wal-Mart, weather from the ninth circle of Hell and the municipality of West Memphis. When we lived there, they allowed clear-cutting in state forests. But back to the matter at hand.
The Gawker blogs, and Gawker in particular, trade on what everyone else does these days, which is jokes about current events. It’s in the comment section of the blogs where the fun happens, and one particular Charlestonian had enough with South Carolina’s clowning out.
Sen. Mick Mulvaney’s campaign to unseat long-serving Fifth District U.S. Rep. John Spratt ran into a little Internet trouble this week. We’re not saying outages like we had recently — thanks, Time Warner — but hiring an inexperienced person/firm who sent said inexperienced person to deal with its new media operation. Apparently unfamiliar with the self-policing aspects of Wikipedia and how totally anal-retentive the keepers of the kingdom are, Erin Febel stirred up a hornet’s nest.
At least, that’s per commenter “Orange Mike.”
Somebody named Erin Febel, who apparently works for Mick in some capacity, created a Wikipedia article about him (there should have been one already, since he’s a state legislator). That in and of itself verges on a conflict of interest violation.
What has gotten her big loud warnings, is that even after being warned about our strict conflict of interest rules, she keeps editing the article!!!! She just removed all the warnings about ways in which the article needs to be cleaned up, and while she was at it removed Mulvaney’s wife’s maiden name (a “secret” discovered by looking at his official website).
And there’s this:
And that:
We wonder how the Mulvaney campaign does its hiring. It’s involved in arguably one of the top-five high-profile U.S. House races this year. So they hire a new media person straight out of college? Who apparently doesn’t know how not to get caught on Wikipedia? Did she ever read one of the dozens of stories about staffers or consultants who get caught cleaning up a Wikipedia page on the candidate? Maybe Spratt has less to worry about than originally thought.
