Campaigns and Home Truths
One thing about campaigns: They do have a way of getting down to home truths – though most times they try pretty hard to hide it.
One home truth is the candidate’s character. Or, occasionally, the character of whoever is behind the candidate pulling the strings. Another is the external forces beyond the candidate’s control that usually determine the outcomes of elections. After all, ultimately, politics, like oceans and rivers, is governed by tides and most times the tides just take the campaign where they’re going like pieces of flotsam.
This year the tides are flowing in the wrong direction for Republicans, so we have a bevy of ‘safe’ incumbents – like
In the Senate race against Dole, Kay Hagan’s character hardly seems to matter when it comes to determining the course of her campaign. Instead, Hagan’s course is being set by whoever in
On the other hand Mrs. Dole’s character – I have a suspicion – has a lot to do with the direction of her campaign.
Jesse Helms didn’t mind rolling his sleeves up and diving right into a political fight and if that included a little eye-gouging and elbow-throwing, well, as Tom Ellis once said, ‘Politics ain’t kickball.’
Mrs. Dole seems to prefer kickball. Turning into an eye-gouging wildcat just doesn’t suit her self image. Her campaign’s throwing plenty of punches now in its ads but Mrs. Dole still seems to be floating above the fray.
One of the best ads done in North Carolina politics was when Jesse Helms went on in 1984 and said, ‘I’m Jesse Helms and I oppose the Panama Canal giveaway. Where do you stand, Jim?’ Ole Jesse dove right into the fray.
So how about Elizabeth Dole saying to Kay Hagan (the way Jesse took on Jim Hunt): ‘I’m Elizabeth Dole, I’m for drilling oil off the coast of
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Campaigns and Home Truths
One thing about campaigns: They do have a way of getting down to home truths – though most times they try pretty hard to hide it.
One home truth is the candidate’s character. Or, occasionally, the character of whoever is behind the candidate pulling the strings. Another is the external forces beyond the candidate’s control that usually determine the outcomes of elections. After all, ultimately, politics, like oceans and rivers, is governed by tides and most times the tides just take the campaign where they’re going like pieces of flotsam.
This year the tides are flowing in the wrong direction for Republicans, so we have a bevy of ‘safe’ incumbents – like
In the Senate race against Dole, Kay Hagan’s character hardly seems to matter when it comes to determining the course of her campaign. Instead, Hagan’s course is being set by whoever in
On the other hand Mrs. Dole’s character – I have a suspicion – has a lot to do with the direction of her campaign.
Jesse Helms didn’t mind rolling his sleeves up and diving right into a political fight and if that included a little eye-gouging and elbow-throwing, well, as Tom Ellis once said, ‘Politics ain’t kickball.’
Mrs. Dole seems to prefer kickball. Turning into an eye-gouging wildcat just doesn’t suit her self image. Her campaign’s throwing plenty of punches now in its ads but Mrs. Dole still seems to be floating above the fray.
One of the best ads done in North Carolina politics was when Jesse Helms went on in 1984 and said, ‘I’m Jesse Helms and I oppose the Panama Canal giveaway. Where do you stand, Jim?’ Ole Jesse dove right into the fray.
So how about Elizabeth Dole saying to Kay Hagan (the way Jesse took on Jim Hunt): ‘I’m Elizabeth Dole, I’m for drilling oil off the coast of
Click Here to discuss and comment on this and other articles.