A Glowing Endorsement?
Earlier this week on his CT Post blog, Jon Kantrowitz posted the following quote:
It is always critical for the state to tap the business insights and experiences, as well as the professional training and certifications, of our corporate citizens for public service…By enlisting such corporate leadership, government weaves the business community into the everyday rhythm of our state, thereby ensuring long-term, public-private cooperation and success.
Although it reads like a glowing endorsement of Ned Lamont’s gubernatorial candidacy, it’s not. It’s actually an excerpt from Dan Malloy’s letter in support of WWE CEO Linda McMahon’s appointment to the State Board of Education.
The fact that Dan believes he is the most qualified candidate for governor is neither surprising nor objectionable. What’s objectionable about this is not the fact that Dan heartily endorsed Linda on the basis of her private sector experience, but that he believes that hers would be an asset to public service and that Ned’s would not be.
Here are two examples of Dan diminishing Ned’s private sector experience:
From the New London Day [link]
Malloy is a government believer, and says it is naive to think that the state can run efficiently on business acumen alone.
“This argument that Foley and Lamont are making that all you need is a business leader to run government is being rejected,” he said.
From DanMalloy.com [link]
Ned seems to think his millions of dollars and his background as a cable executive are why Democrats should choose him over me. I think he’s wrong. I think Democrats want a nominee who has the right kind of experience for the job.”
So he’s gone from thinking that business experience is critical to being critical of business experience.
The reason I point this out is because we have a great field of differently qualified Democratic candidates coupled with the best chance in decades for Democrats to win the Governor’s race. I think it’s important for them to differentiate themselves without tearing each other down. It’s no secret who I’m rooting for, but I would prefer to see the Democratic primary unfold as a contest of ideas rather than a battle to undermine everyone’s chances of winning in November. I think it’s fair to expect that Dan’s high regard for the value of Linda’s business experience would translate into at least some respect for Ned’s.
What’s foolish, of course, is that Malloy doesn’t think his attacks hurt his campaign’s prospects for November.
What becomes obvious, when reading this and like posts, is that none of the candidates mentioned has ever done, said, or even imagined anything compelling and important enough to make them inspirational people and candidates for office — that is, to put themselves about trivial tit-for-tat political-junkie jonesing that bloggers and the mainstream media try to put across to us as thoughtful parsing of real issues.