Showing off her fatal flaw
Betsy Johnson did a supremely dumb thing yesterday. She showed up unannounced at one of those Ted Talks events in Portland, there to be interviewed on stage by some guy tossing her one underhand softball after another. From all reports, many in the surprised audience were outraged, heckling her relentlessly, especially about her atrocious opposition to gun control, and she seemed to score few points with anyone in attendance.
Who in God's name is running her campaign? Were they thinking that (a) a Ted Talks crowd would be pleased to have part of the program sucked up by a politician, (b) a Portland Ted Talks crowd would be sympathetic to anyone running against the establishment Democrat, or (c) this would be a good weekend for NRA Betsy to show her face?
All they did was call massive attention to the Achilles heel of her candidacy for governor: her affinity with the gun people. You knew she was going to have answer for it at some point, but the weekend of the Texas school massacre was probably the worst time imaginable. It would have been a much better day for a photo op at the Roseburg farmers' market.
I wouldn't vote for either of her mainstream opponents for dog catcher, but I must say the whole assault rifle business is going to make me hesitate a good long while before I mark any ballot for Johnson, either. I voted for Deez Nuts for President in 2016, and he may have to be my pick for governor, too.
By Tuesday, Johnson will be at least 5 points behind where she was on Friday, and probably more. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
Meanwhile, the I, Tina crowd is bleating loudly on social media about siccing the IRS on Ted Talks, because it's a tax-exempt nonprofit that is supposed to stay out of politics. But trust me, complaining to the tax authorities about something like this is a waste of time and energy. The angry kids should just settle down, sit back, and laugh. Betsy just did herself some major damage. Shot herself in the foot, as it were.
2016. Just before the fall.
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ReplyDeleteI wish there were an edit function for these comments. Here is what I was trying to say:
DeleteWell you can look at it two ways I suppose. You can give her props for not lying about it and trying just to appease this Portland crowd like most politicians would. Or you can say that she was stupid by at least not trying to at least show some empathy about the situation and saying that it is the wrong time to talk about it and that she is open-minded about solutions.
If I were her I would had done the latter, but the damage is done now I guess. But people have short memories luckily for her.
Yeah, she’s quite a piece of work. I was at a legislative committee hearing a few years ago. BJ shows up, takes a vacant seat as if she was a member of the committee, and starts asking questions of those testifying. The committee chair had to ask her if she had signed up to testify before asking her to sit in the audience area.
ReplyDeletePretty obvious that this race is a set-up. The Reptiles and Indies split the vote, so Tina can just slither right in. And just to make sure, start piling up the bad hot takes for ammo should the sheep get restless.
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