Just Like Me

I noted with interest a comment by LaVarr Webb, a political columnist in the Deseret News. I quote...

Depending on late poll numbers, candidates may be tempted to go negative in the Fourth Congressional District (Matheson vs. Love) and the Salt Lake County mayoral race (McAdams vs. Crockett.) Utah Democrats, in big races especially, sometimes have a difficult choice: Do I lose with dignity? Or do I hold my nose, go negative and perhaps have a small chance of winning?

Did he really suggest that Jim Matheson and Ben McAdams have two chances of winning - one slim (with a pinched nose,) and the other a dignified none? Aren't these the two races where Matheson has a double digit lead over Love, and McAdams is out raising Crockett by a multiple of three, or thirteen, or thirty?

Pardon me, I'm trying to recall, how did those two races turn out last time? You know, the ones for Scott Matheson's congressional district, and the one for Salt Lake County mayor? Was it the Republican or the Democrat who won?

How about the time before that? Who won then?

Exactly when would you suggest that Democrats despair?

..............

There is another article. One actually worth reading that provides facts and solid argumentation. That's Mayor Caroon's op ed piece written in response to Mark Crockett's invention of a $2b county debt. His dissection of that fable is exquisitely effective. The mayor probably makes the same points made by the Republican county council members when they recently took Crockett to the woodshed.

Caroon concludes with this observation, "Interestingly, Crockett acknowledges that the mayor proposes a budget that is then adopted by the council, and yet he goes on to say that the council is not the problem. If that’s the case, it’s hard to understand exactly what Crockett believes the problem is."

Sorry your honor, but the answer to that is obvious. The big problem for Mark Crockett is the absence of a big problem.

He's doing his best given that he has so little to work with. My guess is that soon Crockett will return to his previous script which ran something like this, "I'm a businessman, exactly like Mitt Romney, who's a businessman, just like me."

That approach is far less likely to get him in trouble.