The below Twitter reaction started Friday evening when Nathan Fletcher tweeted, just in passing while he’s on vacation, that he made a phone call to Mayor Bob Filner and asked him to resign. Uhh, like a whole two weeks ago on July 12.
Fletcher the politician is typically much more adept at playing the political game than this.
Because, this is simply inept.
In case Scott Lewis or others still have questions, let me try to shed some political light.
If you’re privately calling on someone to do something, hoping that they will listen to your private opinion and take appropriate action, that’s fine. It’s your business that you want it private. If you want it that way, you keep it that way.
Yet, if you want the public to know you called on the person to do whatever it is you asked, you somehow let the public know. You make it public. The same minute? Not necessarily. But, two weeks later? Come now.
So, let’s be real. Privately asking someone to resign, although possibly meaningful as a personal influencer, in the public world of politics is no different than making a private endorsement of a candidate. From a public standpoint, it’s meaningless.
It doesn’t exist.
Fletcher’s move at this point would have been much more believable had he publicly stated (even tweeted) that he’s been on vacation and is just catching up, but given the seriousness of what he sees has taken place over the last several days, he’s now calling for resignation.
To publicly make a claim that you took the right action, two weeks after taking that action in private, means one of two things, or both…
1) You are trying to cover your ass.
2) The other is simpler to figure out.
http://storify.com/sandiegorostra/really-nathan