Have a beer with Rossi; Let Gregoire run the state
"Dino Rossi seems like such a nice guy." "I hear that he is really friendly."
This situation seems just a little too familiar to me. Think back to 2004, when after four years of Bush’s bad judgment and stupidity, a majority of voters still “liked him” and “would rather have a beer with him” than with John Kerry. Obviously this likeability played a big part in Bush's re-election, because it certainly wasn’t his results in office.
Zoom forward to Washington’s governor’s race. Today, Republican Dino Rossi avoids Bush as if unpopularity were contagious but takes a play right out of his playbook: play up the personality, play down the issues.
Does Rossi have sound ideas, a strategic vision for our state or leadership cred? No.
Does he have a wide, white smile and an affable personality? Yes.
As Rossi explained to a Republican club in Pierce County last year:
We’ve had eight years of craziness with a president who would be a fun drinking buddy. If beer drinking was a reasonable criterion for choosing a leader, any frat boy would be qualified to grace the halls of power, but when we look a bit closer at Rossi, there is not much else there to see.
What are his big ideas beyond transportation? What has he led other than the passage of an unpopular budget?
Washington will regret making the same mistake twice. In November we must choose between a governor with a strong track record, a vision for a bright future and the intellectual heft to tackle the problems that stand between us and that future, and a candidate who hides his conservative social values and lack of substance behind a gleaming smile and warm personality.
I don’t think we can afford to fall for that trick again.
This situation seems just a little too familiar to me. Think back to 2004, when after four years of Bush’s bad judgment and stupidity, a majority of voters still “liked him” and “would rather have a beer with him” than with John Kerry. Obviously this likeability played a big part in Bush's re-election, because it certainly wasn’t his results in office.
Zoom forward to Washington’s governor’s race. Today, Republican Dino Rossi avoids Bush as if unpopularity were contagious but takes a play right out of his playbook: play up the personality, play down the issues.
Does Rossi have sound ideas, a strategic vision for our state or leadership cred? No.
Does he have a wide, white smile and an affable personality? Yes.
As Rossi explained to a Republican club in Pierce County last year:
I've found you can do pretty much anything you want if you do it with a smile on your face. It's amazing what you can get away with if you do it with a smile on your face.Just what is it that Rossi would like to get away with? Limiting women’s access to birth control? Reversing recent gains made in gay rights? Or maybe taking away the access to health care that Governor Gregoire worked so hard to give to thousands of low-income Washington kids?
We’ve had eight years of craziness with a president who would be a fun drinking buddy. If beer drinking was a reasonable criterion for choosing a leader, any frat boy would be qualified to grace the halls of power, but when we look a bit closer at Rossi, there is not much else there to see.
What are his big ideas beyond transportation? What has he led other than the passage of an unpopular budget?
Washington will regret making the same mistake twice. In November we must choose between a governor with a strong track record, a vision for a bright future and the intellectual heft to tackle the problems that stand between us and that future, and a candidate who hides his conservative social values and lack of substance behind a gleaming smile and warm personality.
I don’t think we can afford to fall for that trick again.
# Posted by Kathleen : 9:51 PM
Comments:
TIME FOR A RADICAL CHANGE IN THE ELECTORAL PROCESS
Taxpayers deserve independent representation with teeth. NOT suppliant gofers taking orders from special interests.
http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2008/10/electoral-process-urgent-change-is.html
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