One thumb up for Wheeler
Outgoing Portland city commissioner Amanda Fritz has endorsed Ted Wheeler to be re-elected mayor.
This is probably welcome news to Wheeler, who's had a rough year. And it sounds right. A rookie politician is not what we need right now.
Somebody hand me my clothespin.
Portland needs leadership. Sure, it's great knowing how the services are provided, but if you aren't a leader you only add to the tumultuous times. I've thought many things about Ted and our city council during this endless year but I never once said, "Wow! What leadership skills!"
ReplyDeleteOf course there's an X factor with someone new, but mathematically at least there's a slim chance we'll be pleasantly surprised. And if not, maybe things will get so bad that we'll finally search out someone who can do the job. Let's admit to ourselves that the job has not been getting done. In fact, I think if we really knew the true cost of Ted Wheeler's lack of leadership it would be a staggering amount. Start with turning the image of Portland into a national joke. How much will that cost us long term? And what if we need something from the federal government? Are we going to get anywhere sending the same guy who's been trash-talking the feds for months? I admit this last weekend with the Proud Boys, etc...went well but I found myself thinking, "Why couldn't we have figured this out sooner? Why did it take so long?"
Frankly, I was impressed that Ted could manage to turn so many subsets of Portland against him. If he was a good leader he'd have won easily. But he managed to alienate damn near everybody, except Amanda here. By the way, I'd ask her if this wasn't part of a deal: You support me and then I'll help you. If she gave this endorsement for nothing, I would worry about her ability to operate on the City Council.
Just imagine the campaign slogan you'd come up with for Ted, if you were being 100% honest: "Vote for me and there'll be no learning curve. I already know how to screw up."