-By Warner Todd Huston
I think Bill Brady will be a fair governor if he wins office in November. But he’s never going to get there unless he stops making all these foolish mistakes on the way to election day. Already he’s made at least three faux pas that alone are not that bad but added together they make his campaign look hapless, un-tethered to common sense. So far it’s just not very effective campaigning.
Right out of the box, as soon as he won the primary, Brady pushed forward with a bill to re-open a mass puppy killing facility for a veterinarian from his district. Brady obviously felt that re-opening the puppy euthanasia facility would be an economic boon to his home district as well as sever to help a local constituent. But what ever the reason that Brady supported this bill, the fact that one of the first things he did after he won his party’s nomination for governor was to announce a bill for killing puppies en masse is just an inept move.
Should Brady have still been just a State Senator, few would have made too much of this bill but that he had become the nominee for his party that safe anonymity goes away. The Old Media was sure to pounce on such a tone deaf, misstep. And pounce they did. The result was that Brady backed off his support for re-opening the puppy gas chamber. This messy situation could have been avoided if his campaign was on its toes.
If that were the only mistake Brady made it would not amount to much. Unfortunately, he’s made other little mistakes just as easily avoided. Recently, for instance, Brady announced his refusal to open his tax returns for public scrutiny saying, “I don’t feel there’s any reason to do it.”
Naturally, the Old Media made Brady into a haughty politician not interested in being held accountable to the voters. Only a few days later Brady reversed his position after the Democrat Governor Pat Quinn and the media lambasted him or it. But even as he opened his returns for the media to see, he limited the viewing to a few hours only. The whole incident opened him for easy ridicule.
Next Brady announced that he would not be attending the appearance of Governor Sarah Palin at a Rosemont event being sponsored by Chicago radio station WIND. Brady turning his back on the highest profile conservative figure in the country was sure to cause tongues to clack. Of course, that is just what happened.
But, once again, only days later Brady reversed himself and announced that he now will be making the Palin event on Wednesday, May 12.
This all shows a disturbing trend of ineptitude in the Brady campaign. It shows a trend of a bad Brady decision that is then reversed in the face of Media attacks. But, worse, it shows foolish decisions in the first place, decisions that a competent campaign would have avoided in the first place. Brady at once looks weak, vacillating and a bit absurd.
However, it is still extremely early in the campaign and few voters are paying attention to these little mistakes. Brady still has the opportunity to get his campaign in gear and put a stop to these silly mistakes. But he won’t have forever to get this fixed. I am dearly hoping that someone takes hold of this campaign before these sort of idiotic mistakes become better known by the voting public and wrecks his chance to show that he is a competent candidate that can beat Pat Quinn and earn the respect of the voters. But he better hurry. He won’t get much more time to do this.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, TheRealityCheck.org, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, and the New Media Journal, among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. Warner is also the editor of the Cook County Page for RedCounty.com.
He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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