Wednesday, April 11, 2007

DE Our Word - Moving the right direction, but still off base

I don't know if you read the DE's Our Word yesterday about the mayor's race, but it looks like the DE is starting to understand. Before the primary the DE endorsed Pepper Holder and Sheila for mayor. That was truly stupid and showed a complete ignorance for reality, but maybe they will pay attention to the details before the real election?

Yesterday, the DE started to move toward reality a little. The have begun to figure out what the rest of us have been learning. Sheila is a slick campaigner, but doesn't have a clue about the Carbondale budget, running a meeting, managing an organization or how a city does business development. Her pattern of disinformation and lack of knowledge about all issues surrounding running this city's government is what has bother me from the start.

Then they go on and write, "Cole hasn't run around spreading inaccuracies like Simon, but has defaulted to ignorance on more than one occasion." OK, so we knew who the ethical candidate was already, but it is nice that the DE is getting it.

What exactly is wrong with claiming "ignorance" and once you are informed there is a problem, fixing it? This is the way the real world works people, you do things, you figure out what you did right and wrong, you fix it and move on. Has the DE decided that not knowing about stray weblinks or Facebook groups, someone else made, is a big deal? In particular, I would think that Facebook stuff, that someone owns, that is wrong, is completely understood on campus in this day and age. Once Brad was told about the problem, he moved rapidly to fix it. That is about as well as you can do in the real world.

Once you are out of college, this is what we call highly ethical behavior. In the real world, we don't turn in assignments and forget about them. Sometimes they come back and bite you. You will see, no good deed goes unpunished.

A far bigger problem is Sheila's running without a plan to improve the city and with no idea how the budget works. Sometimes, even in American politics, you can make a clear choice based on quality. This isn't has hard as the Green Party had it choosing between W and Gore, this one is easy. Your choice is between a slick lawyer, with no clue and the best mayor Carbondale has had in 30 years.

Nice to see the DE is starting to get it.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Considering that the DE hasn't met with either of the candidates (like the SI has), its not clear on what foundation they can draw any conclusions.

PeterG said...

I thought the same thing when they choose Pepper and Sheila in the primary. But there are lots of ways as good or better to educate yourself then listening to politicians spin. You can look at their results for example. You can look at what they tell others. You can look at their written strategies. I'm not saying the DE has done any of those, but at least they seem up on the issues now.

We do know that the DE has sat down and interviewed in person and by phone both candidates many times. Maybe they haven't hosted a debate, but to say that haven't talked to them isn't true. We don't know if the reporters who have talked to the candidates are part of the editorial board who makes decisions on "Our Word" articles or candidate endorsements.

I wonder how many people in Carbondale have actually sat down, face to face with both candidates and grilled them. I have, but I am willing to bet there aren't many others.

If you haven't talked to both candidates face to face, should your vote not be counted?

Interesting idea, need to think about it more.

Anonymous said...

I saw Cole going into the DE office the other day, so I'm pretty sure they HAVE met with the candidates.

Anonymous said...

"If you haven't talked to both candidates face to face, should your vote not be counted?"

I'm not suggesting any such thing. I am suggesting that the media -- when they want to engage in editorializing -- have a greater responsibility to inform themselves than the voters (who, of course, rely on the media for information). Given that they just peed all over both candidates and didn't even ask them their side of the story, I'd say the DE failed this time around.

PeterG said...

Sorry, that face to face thing, I had gone off on a tangent and wasn't trying to make fun of what you said. Your idea is really smart, I hope the DE is doing better and not worse. I like it as an idea and was trying to explore what it meant.

Anonymous said...

At her victory press conference Sheila Simon was asked: "Mayor Simon! You said if elected you would hire a fulltime person for economic evelopment. Have you decided who that will be? Who do you think has the knowledge and experience for this important position?" Simon thought for a moment then before she could stop herself she said "Brad Cole". "No wait... I was thinking items of knowledge and experience... I mean he doesn't have the right political connections or pedigree....No, that's not what I meant either. I mean...I get back to you on that."


- Ain't no senator's son.

PeterG said...

I don't think we have to worry about seeing Sheila at a victory press conference, do you?