Bernie Reeves
June 21, 2010 - by
The first ‘reality moment’ in a political campaign last week belonged to Bob Etheridge; the second belonged to Bill Randall.
Randall, who is locked in a tight runoff with Bernie Reeves, called his first press conference Tuesday and announced – as the cameras rolled – he thought the government and BP had conspired to cause the oil spill.
Of course, that video went viral – just as the video of Etheridge assaulting a college student the day before had.
Suddenly, voters in Randall’s district – like voters in Etheridge’s – were asking, Who is he? And Randall compounded his mistake by calling another press conference, looking the reporters in the eye and, in effect, telling them, I didn’t say what you think I said.
The press has a lot of problems but understanding English isn’t one of them – so, the reporters didn’t exactly buy Randall’s explanation that they’d misunderstood. One reporter asked, Well, are you now saying the government and BP didn’t conspire to cause the oil spill?
No, Randall said, he wasn’t backing up one bit.
After that the hour-long press conference turned into a macarena with Randall arguing no matter what was on that videotape he’d never accused BP and the government of conspiring but then saying he wanted an investigation into the conspiracy between BP and the government.
There’s an old saying ‘in politics it’s not so much what you do that matters – it’s what your opponent does to himself.’ Bob Etheridge and Bill Randall have given us two pretty good examples.
Bernie Reeves
June 21, 2010/
The first ‘reality moment’ in a political campaign last week belonged to Bob Etheridge; the second belonged to Bill Randall.
Randall, who is locked in a tight runoff with Bernie Reeves, called his first press conference Tuesday and announced – as the cameras rolled – he thought the government and BP had conspired to cause the oil spill.
Of course, that video went viral – just as the video of Etheridge assaulting a college student the day before had.
Suddenly, voters in Randall’s district – like voters in Etheridge’s – were asking, Who is he? And Randall compounded his mistake by calling another press conference, looking the reporters in the eye and, in effect, telling them, I didn’t say what you think I said.
The press has a lot of problems but understanding English isn’t one of them – so, the reporters didn’t exactly buy Randall’s explanation that they’d misunderstood. One reporter asked, Well, are you now saying the government and BP didn’t conspire to cause the oil spill?
No, Randall said, he wasn’t backing up one bit.
After that the hour-long press conference turned into a macarena with Randall arguing no matter what was on that videotape he’d never accused BP and the government of conspiring but then saying he wanted an investigation into the conspiracy between BP and the government.
There’s an old saying ‘in politics it’s not so much what you do that matters – it’s what your opponent does to himself.’ Bob Etheridge and Bill Randall have given us two pretty good examples.