You Try It and See If It's Easy
Before we make assumptions about why someone decided not to run for office, we need to remember
how difficult it is to run for office:
Even with all of those realities, however, a year is an eternity in politics and Sarah Palin had plenty of time to rehabilitate her image, and even her opponents inside the Republican Party wouldn't question Palin's conservative credentials, merely her readiness. A few Palin supporters have said they were "numb" and couldn't believe the former Governor's decision. Many of her major online supporters
accepted the decision-with some reservations. There were those people-and these always exist-who said that Palin wasn't running because she was making the big money at Fox News now, and that running for President would be a lot of hassle for a job that would essnetially be a pay cut for Palin. The same view was circulated earlier this year when former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee-who is a major talent on Fox-announced that he would not run for the Republican nomination. No one was more disappointed in that announcement than this writer, who can now admit that he would have voted for Governor Huckabee in a New York minute. Huckabee received letters and notes which stated how selfish he was being, and that he was more concerned with making big bucks than with saving our country.
What is most interesting about the people who make such incredibly naive statements is that most of them have never run for political office before in their life.
Labels: Conservatism, Federal politics, Local politics, Presidential Election, Republican Party, Tennessee politics
Rogero That...
In the race for Knoxville Mayor, Madeleine Rogero has accused Mark Padgett of being a "courthouse insider." Coming from Rogero,
that is a really rich allegation:
Rogero is, of course, not familiar at all with being a political insider or a part of the gang at the Knox City-County Building at all, is she? A former County Commissioner and opponent of Bill Haslam, the latter appointed her to run his Community Development Department while he was Mayor, so Rogero claiming that Padget is some kind of courthouse insider while she is the fresh face of East Tennessee political life may be the joke of the century. The reality is that Harmon, Hultquist, Bennett and Sheriff Jones are doing precisely what we suggested they would have to do in order to insure that Rogero could be beaten-put aside their own partisan differences and line up behind Padgett to save the City of Knoxville from having a Marxist elected as Mayor.
Labels: Elections, Local politics, Tennessee politics
Occupy Knoxville
And you thought the
protests in New York were a big deal?
The Wall Street Occupiers have turned out to be a diverse lot, one in which the views of the Left may be the majority, but the views of the Right are very obviously heard. The major political factions within the country are joined by people of the Monster Raving Loony persuasion, making for perhaps the most motley crew ever assembled for a public protest. Apparently, Wall Street isn't the only place that protestors are looking to occupy, because both the Occupy Together website and the News Sentinel are reporting that a protest meet up is being organized two days from now. The website says that only one person is going, but the whole affair seems to be taking off on Facebook-helped by a Jack Lail write-up on the News Sentinel website.
Labels: Elections, Federal politics, Local politics, Presidential Election, Tennessee politics
The Other Side of the Story
Finally, one of the nurses that Representatives Tony Shipley and Dale Ford helped get a fair hearing
is telling their side of the story:
For all of the negative media attention (especially in the Nashville area) heaped on Representative Tony Shipley after the nurses were exonerated for the supposed "improper use of his office," the story has all but died in the press in the over two months since it broke. This may be because any investigative journalism would discover that neither Shipley nor Ford seems to have acted inappropriately.
Among the parties that members of the press never spoke to before now were any of the nurse-practitioners involved. In an exclusive to The Examiner, Nurse-Practitioner Bob Reynolds II has bravely agreed to share his side of the story, explaining how his life, and the lives of the other professionals involved were ruined by overzealous State officials Hell-bent on making heads roll-no matter what the real human cost happened to be.
Labels: Conservatism, Local politics, Political correctness, Tennessee politics
