John Fielding
Well, well.
What will the Berks Democrats think of next?
They have much to pick from, but in the county races they may have had a shot in they go with a professionally challenged dilettante and an estrogen-enriched pretty boy.
Snyder and Corbit, running against Long and Sutton, for Treasurer and Prothonotary respectively but not respectfully, have enlisted the battered acolytes of the president as their base of support. In Berks today, not last year, too little very late.
Snyder is so dense light bends around her. She’s out of her depth in a parking lot puddle. Long has toyed with her in debate, reducing her to simpering. But she’s got cash and, despite a non-starter resume, is not an incumbent in a rebellious year. Long is wildly popular with moderates and his gruff/no b.s. demeanor and C.P.A. status is seen by most as a proper temperament and creds for the office.
Corbit is, well, from a certain sub-section of the usual Dem grievance groups. Rumor is that may come to hurt him late this month. He’s running for Prothonotary rock hard and has a consistent message against Sutton. Sutton herself, a long vote-getting champ, has his number and is punishing him (though, he may like that) in the media war. Perhaps a…ahem…protégé of a Dem elected official, Corbit is making neophyte mistakes and is bleeding momentum. And the shadowy circumstances of his wife’s recent filing for divorce cannot help matters much.
The lack of qualifications of Snyder and the cult of personality aspect of the Corbit campaign highlight two major motivating forces in today’s Democratic Party: nihilism and narcissism. From the White House on down, who cares if they have any ideas for the job if they just really want it or the camera likes them? It recalls the Coen Brothers’ great line, “Nihilists! F--- me. I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it’s an ethos.”
Neither of these races is in the bag for any candidate. But in a year the Dems could have zigged, they zagged. When they could have swoshed, they swished and grabbed possible defeat out of the pouty mouth of victory. Nice going girls.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
Are you so deaf and blind as to miss that the city of Reading is going broke? Maybe you think that if we all just close our eyes and stick to the Republican message, then magically one day the old long underwear factory in Mohnton will return with 500 new jobs. Well wake up to the real world: we need a more efficiently run county, and Corbit's experience in IT is just the medicine. Have you ever built technology infrastructure for a huge company? Linked files together electronically for easy access and review? I thought not, so shut it.
Do us all a favor, vote Corbit on Nov 3rd. And if not, do yourself a favor and just stay home.
Best
-The Activists
go ahead and post my comment, stop by so scared of public discourse.
I'm trying to figure out what the Prothy's office has to do with Reading going broke. On the other hand, electing Democrats has a lot to do with it. Republicans have had very little to do with the path of the City of Reading for a hundred years or do. Every liberal Democratic dream has come true in the City of Reading. Why would liberals complain about it now?
On the other hand, observing the city of Reading as we do, we can understand why no one would want to elect left-wing Democrats to county offices. Having driven the City of Reading over a cliff, lefties like Corbit and Snyder now want an opportunity to do the same to the county.
If Corbit is the answer to a technologically challenged county, why isn't he running for Commissioner? After all, the AS400 is a county system, not specifically the Prothy's.
Further, working in the county requires more than private industry experience. “Linked files together electronically for easy access and review? I thought not, so shut it.” Why not ask Fred Sheeler why no one can search the Deeds office, the assessment office, and the mapping office on a unitary system under one PIN or another number? Obviously, filing a million mortgage documents was not sufficient experience for Fred to be competent enough to wave a magic wand and “make it happen” on a county basis. There is no reason to believe Corbit can either. For that matter, if Corbit was so successful in private industry, why isn't he there now?
The Prothy's is as technologically up-to-date as it can be, given the limitations of the county system. Giving Fred Sheeler a new playmate is not going to change that.
Hi Mr. Fielding,
I just want to make one quick point....by refering to Carole Snyder and Charles Corbit as "(a) professionally challenged dilettante and an estrogen-enriched pretty boy," aren't you sort of demeaning the entire political process? "Politician" was never intended to be a profession in our republic and say what you will about Corbit and Snyder but both were private citizens who never ran for office before while their opponents are long-time incumbents.
And both are now still private citizens because both were flawed candidates whose flaws resulted in both incumbents being re-elected. And all remains right with the world. The process worked.
It still leaves a sour taste in my mouth to see citizens who run for office to be treated like this. It's sort of like the time that noodle-armed wuss girl Jim Troutman had the Green Party candidate--the freakin' Green Party!!--tossed off the ballot and then showed up at her house in person with a deputy sheriff to serve the papers informing her of the court's decision. She should have kicked him in his goodybag.
I eat lunch on a frequent basis with Troutman and other county types, so I am in a unique position to comment on the issue of the Green Party candidate. First, unfortunately, the Green Party seems to have the problem a lot of third parties have: they can't seem to get competent help in interpreting election law. The Libertarians once had a candidate tossed by the Republicans (Christian Leinbach) in 1996 because many of their signatures came from the wrong congressional district. The Green Party statewide had the same problem in the 2008 Presidential election. Maybe if those running third-party campaigns could read the law, they might actually stay on the ballot.
Second, Jim filed an election challenge to Ashman's petition, which he is permitted to do under the law. Blaming him for this is like blaming a person for taking tax deductions; if the law provides for it, why not?
Third, there was such a short period in which to serve the petition with the order scheduling the hearing, Jim just decided to serve it himself. I did a petition challenge in this cycle, and I had three hours! The sheriff (not a deputy) happened to be with Jim at the time, so he said why don't you come with me. Eric wanted to go out and get an Icy Tea anyway, so he said sure.
Fourth, when they arrived at the address, Ms. Ashman was not present so they served it on her boyfriend, thus explaining why she did not "kick[] him in his goody bag."
It was really no big deal; happens all the time during March. The left wing made it into something extraordinary which it was not.
I eat lunch on a frequent basis with Troutman and other county types, so I am in a unique position to comment on the issue of the Green Party candidate. First, unfortunately, the Green Party seems to have the problem a lot of third parties have: they can't seem to get competent help in interpreting election law. The Libertarians once had a candidate tossed by the Republicans (Christian Leinbach) in 1996 because many of their signatures came from the wrong congressional district. The Green Party statewide had the same problem in the 2008 Presidential election. Maybe if those running third-party campaigns could read the law, they might actually stay on the ballot.
Second, Jim filed an election challenge to Ashman's petition, which he is permitted to do under the law. Blaming him for this is like blaming a person for taking tax deductions; if the law provides for it, why not?
Third, there was such a short period in which to serve the petition with the order scheduling the hearing, Jim just decided to serve it himself. I did a petition challenge in this cycle, and I had three hours! The sheriff (not a deputy) happened to be with Jim at the time, so he said why don't you come with me. Eric wanted to go out and get an Icy Tea anyway, so he said sure.
Fourth, when they arrived at the address, Ms. Ashman was not present so they served it on her boyfriend, thus explaining why she did not "kick[] him in his goody bag."
It was really no big deal; happens all the time during March. The left wing made it into something extraordinary which it was not.
Post a Comment