I once read William Carlos Williams’ The Red Wheelbarrow over and over in an English interpretation class for three hours deciphering the deeper meaning of an 8-line poem. That pales to my enchantment with this San Diego Union-Tribune editorial on the San Diego mayoral race.
First, it begins with a self-aware candidate assessment: “The early conventional wisdom about the race for mayor of San Diego goes something like this: Nathan Fletcher is the fresh young face; Carl DeMaio is the hardline fiscal reformer; Bob Filner is the unabashed liberal; and Bonnie Dumanis is the moderate favorite of ‘the establishment.’ ”
Let me boil those basic descriptors down a bit further: Fletcher’s too young, Carl’s too tough, Filner’s too soft and Bonnie’s juuuuust right (for some).
It’s like the “Four Little Bears” of political analysis, with voters playing the witless Goldilocks who should have faced charges of breaking and entering.
Then, after it tells you where they pigeon hole the candidates, it argues against thinking for oneself: “As this campaign begins in earnest – Labor Day being the traditional start of political campaigns – we urge voters to essentially ignore the early political handicapping and to view the candidates with fresh eyes and an open mind.”
Whoa. That just blew my mind.
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, Toto. And be sure to set up Google calendar reminder on 9/1/11 to start paying attention to the San Diego mayor race.
Speaking of attention spans (squirrel!), I just read a study that the new, cool campaign toy will be iPhone and iPad apps because more than 25 percent of Smart Phone users get online via their phones. Heck, Obama 2012 has an app for that. And yes, I downloaded it and yes… (mumbling) it is pretty cool.
We’re information junkies. Hence the rise of social media and the growing credibility of blogs. I’ve seen no evidence that anyone in San Diego who wishes to pay attention to this race has missed a trick due to some arbitrary starting point. It “started” last year.
But they do make one interesting point. What does all this so-called “early political handicapping” mean long-term?
The UT opines based on its editorial board with each candidate: “These interviews show each to be bright, experienced and knowledgeable. Each offers strengths and weaknesses that stem from compelling life stories.”
Or as my grandma would say: Bless their little hearts.
To be fair, the title of the piece was “The race for mayor of San Diego” and not “Picking our favorite child.” So, it’s cool.
It’s a shame the UT didn’t take a stab at more substance because there is much to discuss about these top-tier candidates. Most recently, we’ve seen the DeMaio campaign switch gears to focus solely on the Comprehensive Pension Reform initiative and Dumanis flip-flop on her early opposition to the measure. Those two moves alone tells signals that CPR measure polls very well among likely mayoral voters.
In a recent debate with a friend over the strategies at play, he asked a very fair question: “Are any of the candidates acting particularly mayoral?”
I think William Carlos Williams said it best:
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.
– Follow me @erica_holloway.
Comments 10
Erica: speaking of iPhone apps: check out the Obama countdown app!
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=445326700&mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D6
Erica,you are good,you cfan call me Mike. I am old school journalism. As in daddy ran with Herb and the old school. I skipped a beat and do hard core opp research. old school hard school.
My Princess will be in Cuba next summer on a J1 Visa learning the draft. You can get5 my drift on facebook…..John Birch look for mount soledad cross). I really like your style,content and gentle delivery. A God given talent. As dad and Herb would say.
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Linda:
You’re singing to me. I love apps! I bet there’s an app for people who love apps.
Thanks for sharing.
Best,
Erica
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Dear Mike:
Thank you for your kind assessment. I assume you are referring to Mr. Klein, whom I only admired from the other side of rooms.
A friend recently took a one-year taxpayer paid trip to Gitmo. It’s hard time. Bless her for her service.
Best,
Erica
Ok…if I were advising Bonnie I think I would be having a heart to heart with her RIGHT now about dropping out.
The latest “gaffe” is the total WHIFF on Prop D. It is a non-answer that means, of course, she voted for it. Trying to be cute just shows non-leadership in the extreme and isn’t winning you a single vote back from fiscal hawks.
What I would tell her is that she needs to drop out because this “campaign ” (and I use the word loosely) is sending some clear signals that she could/might have a hard time in a contested DA’s race. Now it is a BIT hard to spin out who that could be but I have to say that if you are an ambitious person who wants to be DA this “performance” sorta belies the idea she is invulnerable. Take a couple of bad cases gone wrong (can we all say Dale Akiki – rhymes with Leaky) but stuff does happen and, should it, there is an opening in 2014.
Oh and Jen T. is not helping her stock EITHER – something that is sorta a problem after Howard lost to a first time politician.
Yep, a couple of years ago Jennifer T. was the golden girl…my how things have changed.
She ran brilliant campaigns for Sheri, Todd and Marty – showing that if you are cut of the “old school” community connection candidates she is a great choice. But I think she showed limits with Howard and in C.A. race. It is HARD to “get” how issues are reverberating around San Diego if you are trying to do it bi-coastally. It is an increasingly partisan town – something that is hard to leverage if you are not directly in the mix with the respect parties and their leaders. So if you DON”T have a long term member of the community planning board or someone who “grew up in the neighborhood” not sure the right choice.
Show me her winning an issue campaign and I will eat crow.
Another challenge for Tierney is the firefighters union. They are a client of hers, and typically they align with her candidates, helping in close races. With Bonnie now supporting pension reform and her dancing around the tax increase vote, they may not be too inclined to help Dumanis.
THUMBS UP for the new Holloway photo !
Everyone should relax about trying to push Bonnie out. She did fine in fundraising and by all accounts has much better polling and voter ID than Fletcher.
She staunched the bleeding on the pension issue by fixing her position now, when only extreme politicos are really paying attention.