Vox

Musings, rants, rambling, general nonsense

When Bad People Happen to Good Candidates?

Posted on | August 16, 2010 | 1 Comment

I was having a dialog on Facebook with a friend of mine about our candidates here in CD3. He is a big supporter of Vernon Parker, a candidate who seemed like a nice enough guy when I met him. However, any positive feelings I had about Parker’s candidacy were strained when he was endorsed by Sheriff Joe, and destroyed when I realized his campaign was being orchestrated by Jason Rose. My buddy is still in his corner, though he admits he was disappointed by the tossing out of the race card.

I am not a huge Ben Quayle supporter, though, rather than dismiss him out-of-hand, I was willing to give him a look-see. My friend cited all the complaints I addressed here as reasons Quayle was a bad choice; as you can see, I don’t agree with those particular points.

Finally (I assume because he realized we’d just have to agree to disagree) he posted this:

LOL – just had a serendipitous realization:

Vernon Parker – great candidate despite the bad people around him . . .

Ben Quayle – bad candidate despite the great people around him . . .
…
LOL!

At first, I just chuckled and thought it could be true – until I thought about it a bit more.

I don’t believe it is possible for a great candidate to be surrounded by bad people. One of the marks of a good leader (which presumably a great candidate would be) is their skill at surrounding themselves with good people. A great candidate would know what he doesn’t know, and fill his staff accordingly. A great candidate would have a clear set of values that would dictate what type of people he chose to represent him.

After all, you need look no further than Barack Obama for an example of a man who believes he needs no real assistance (after all, he is sooo smart – they keep telling us – he knows all the answers) and is therefore comfortable staffing the White House and the Cabinet with old friends. The fact that they are thieves, thugs, radicals and cheats in no way registers as a problem for him. A true leader would want the best – and most honorable – people for those jobs.

As George Washington said, “Associate yourself with men of good quality”

I believe the second half is false, as well. I have no doubt a group of effective campaigners could get together, pick a name out of the phone book, and have a pretty good showing at the polls. However, effective campaigners is not the same as great people. Great people, people of “good quality” as the first GW said, would not spend their time or their money supporting and promoting a candidate they could not respect.

I don’t yet know whether Ben Quayle is a bad candidate, let alone a bad person. I am certainly glad there are so many choices (though what I once considered an embarrassment of riches now seems very much like slim pickings)

I do know that any candidate who would allow their campaign to be run by a slimy character like Jason Rose, is not a great candidate.



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Category: AZ, politics

Comments

One Response to “When Bad People Happen to Good Candidates?”

  1. Considering My Options
    August 22nd, 2010 @ 11:14 pm

    […] PARKER, VERNON B. See my take here […]

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