You Know You're Candidate Is In Trouble When...

...she has to run a campaign add specifically to tell folks that she is not a witch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mUn2c_PKho

I was chatting with a friend of mine about the quandary Delaware conservatives were in, in the Senate race out there. The fun part of our discussion was that he didn’t think there was a quandary. The choice was obvious: vote for O’Donnell. I was hesitant to go along with that. At that point (and, admittedly, even now), I didn’t know much about her, but I had read some whacky quotes attributed to her. Yes, I know, we all say silly things (like me, the other day, when I suggested that the Cubbies might win the World Series next year); but the substance of the things she had been quoted as saying had implications. She was addressing issues and topics that meant something.

And, sure, we’re all aware of the infamous “macaca” moment by Senator George Allen, and how, these days, one dumb slip can end a political career. But as one conservative commentator said of George Allen’s moment, “in the end, stupid people say stupid things, smart ones don’t.” Or, as a philosopher once said, “the thought gives seed to the deed.” In other words, he wouldn’t have said it if he didn’t privately think about it, or even make such jokes in private amongst his friends.

So it is, I thought, with Christine O’Donnell. Yes, we all make mistakes in life. And, yes, I am a believer in forgiveness and redemption. People can learn from their mistakes, and improve. Indeed, I think it is those who have had some experience with error and have learned from those errors; those are folks who can turn out to be tremendous leaders.

But is that the case with Christine O’Donnell? This brings us back to the “I am not a witch” commercial. Good gravy. I don’t have any reason to suspect she’s still a witch (or ever was one), but the commercial doesn’t help that at all. What kind of judgment does it take to run a commercial trying to convince people you’re not a witch, while you’re wearing a black outfit with a dark and smokey aura floating around behind you? Poor judgment.

I still don’t know what I would have done as a primary voter in Delaware. Take the known quantity (with all his demerits) or take the unknown quantity who has shown a handful of errors in judgment? I don’t know. Sometime I think there is value in the under vote.

(refer to my February 14, 2010 note)