Showing posts with label senate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label senate. Show all posts
The new Alvin Greene
Remember Alvin Greene? Sure you do. He was the guy you never heard from the place you've never been who somehow won the U.S. Senate nomination from the Democratic Party. There were cries of voter fraud and he being a Republican decoy, but those soon fell aside after it was proven Greene used his own money to file for his candidacy and there was no vote tampering. There also is those pesky criminal charges out there, but that hasn't stopped anyone else's campaign in the past decade.
Greene soon became a human soundbite with his somewhat non-sensical ramblings punctuated with "ums" all the time. He was often shown wearing a T-shirt and jeans and not in the way that Republican candidates like to wear T-shirts and jeans to events to show they are the common man. Greene really is the common man. Or was the common man.
The new Greene was unveiled this weekend at his first political rally. Speaking at the Manning chapter of the NAACP, Greene wore a crisp blue suit, shook hands, signed autographs and refused to speak to the press. He was ushered away with a police escort after the event. It seems like someone has gotten serious about Alvin Greene's candidacy. He is now acting like a regular candidate with an entourage. It appears South Carolina's opportunity to support the common man has been corrupted.
The big question about this Senate race is would anyone being paying attention in there was no Greene? This is a great lesson in the fundamentals of media and public relations.
Greene soon became a human soundbite with his somewhat non-sensical ramblings punctuated with "ums" all the time. He was often shown wearing a T-shirt and jeans and not in the way that Republican candidates like to wear T-shirts and jeans to events to show they are the common man. Greene really is the common man. Or was the common man.
The new Greene was unveiled this weekend at his first political rally. Speaking at the Manning chapter of the NAACP, Greene wore a crisp blue suit, shook hands, signed autographs and refused to speak to the press. He was ushered away with a police escort after the event. It seems like someone has gotten serious about Alvin Greene's candidacy. He is now acting like a regular candidate with an entourage. It appears South Carolina's opportunity to support the common man has been corrupted.
The big question about this Senate race is would anyone being paying attention in there was no Greene? This is a great lesson in the fundamentals of media and public relations.
More thoughts on the Greene machine
What did Alvin Greene's "surprise" victory in the race to be South Carolina's Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate really tell us? It's not anything can happen. Nor is it politics as usual. Or even that politics is changing. The real story is this is why people campaign hard. This is why their are yard signs, mass mailing and television ads. I often hear from people who complain about politicians who spend all their time campaigning and "wasting" money on ads. The lament is that the voter is smart enough to find the right person on their own.
Greene shows that doesn't happen. Greene, for those of you who haven't heard, is the unemployed Army vet facing a felony charge for showing pornography on a computer to a college freshman. He didn't campaign. Never filed reports with the state. Held no rallies. He paid his fee to the Democratic Party, vanished and ended up winning Tuesday night.
Conspiracy theorists are fishing the idea that Greene was a Republican plant to beat Democrat Vic Rawl. It's possible and not unheard of in South Carolina, but it does seem a little far fetched. Why would anyone pay Greene to essentially not run a campaign is highly circumspect. It could happen in a general election, but in a primary seems odd. Was Vic Rawl that much of a threat to U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint? No. Could this be a way to draw attention away from the malfunctioning GOP in the state? Maybe.
So, who voted for him? The theory is that Democrats focused on the gubernatorial race came out, hadn't been following the Senate race, and voted for the first name on the ballot. The other is that somehow black voters found out Greene was black and voted for him. The third is that Republicans somehow stuffed the ballot box. Yes, Republicans abandonded their own strong races to play a joke on the Democrats. Does that make sense?
Another possibility is machine error. Maybe the electronic voting tallies were wrong? Stranger things have happened.
The reality is voters elected a man they had never heard of in a race they didn't care about. Rawl apparently overlooked Greene in the race and was focused on November. He nor anyone gave Greene a second thought, and he waltzed right in.
That is why we campaign.
Greene shows that doesn't happen. Greene, for those of you who haven't heard, is the unemployed Army vet facing a felony charge for showing pornography on a computer to a college freshman. He didn't campaign. Never filed reports with the state. Held no rallies. He paid his fee to the Democratic Party, vanished and ended up winning Tuesday night.
Conspiracy theorists are fishing the idea that Greene was a Republican plant to beat Democrat Vic Rawl. It's possible and not unheard of in South Carolina, but it does seem a little far fetched. Why would anyone pay Greene to essentially not run a campaign is highly circumspect. It could happen in a general election, but in a primary seems odd. Was Vic Rawl that much of a threat to U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint? No. Could this be a way to draw attention away from the malfunctioning GOP in the state? Maybe.
So, who voted for him? The theory is that Democrats focused on the gubernatorial race came out, hadn't been following the Senate race, and voted for the first name on the ballot. The other is that somehow black voters found out Greene was black and voted for him. The third is that Republicans somehow stuffed the ballot box. Yes, Republicans abandonded their own strong races to play a joke on the Democrats. Does that make sense?
Another possibility is machine error. Maybe the electronic voting tallies were wrong? Stranger things have happened.
The reality is voters elected a man they had never heard of in a race they didn't care about. Rawl apparently overlooked Greene in the race and was focused on November. He nor anyone gave Greene a second thought, and he waltzed right in.
That is why we campaign.
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