LETTERS

Empty endorsements by visiting windbags

Posted 10/21/14

To the Editor:

As we voters search for substance in the candidates of the 2014 election season, the aspirants for chief executive are beckoning help from national notables by seeking public …

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LETTERS

Empty endorsements by visiting windbags

Posted

To the Editor:

As we voters search for substance in the candidates of the 2014 election season, the aspirants for chief executive are beckoning help from national notables by seeking public endorsements. Feigning enthusiasm and promoting local contenders that they hardly know, national bigwigs are flocking to Little Rhody.

The first of which was the rude, robust and rotund New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Surrounded by an entourage of press akin to that of his idol Bruce Springsteen, Christie stirred the local press into a frenzy of possible presidential campaign speculation.

Lost, however, in the scrumming was the supposed intention of the visit, which was the endorsement of Republican candidate for Governor Allan Fung. The mild mannered and demure Fung was eclipsed by planetary presence and personality of Christie, thus, making the effort “A bridge to nowhere” for the Fung campaign by a man who knows how to manipulate bridges for political reasons.

Equally nebulous will be the impending visit from failed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Having yielded only 35 percent of Rhode Island’s popular vote in 2012, which included very few independents and crossover Democrats, Romney seems a strange choice to try to boost vote totals for Fung in our pervasively Democratic state. Additionally, Romney’s unenthusiastic monotone dripped with insincerity in his previously recorded endorsement that was used by Fung’s primary campaign in robot phone calls to potential voters.

On the Democrat side, General Treasurer Gina Riamondo has enlisted former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Undoubtedly, Clinton will be concentrating on strident feminism as her strategy of endorsement. Ms. Raimondo had used her Rhode Island Planned Parenthood endorsement in an incendiary fashion to cultivate a feminist sentiment in the electorate. One would assume Clinton will try to galvanize female voters to make history by electing the first female governor in the state.

What isn’t apparent in these “dog and pony” shows are the real issues that are critically essential to us Rhode Islanders. Budgetary matters, decaying infrastructure, chronically high unemployment, the lack of a thriving manufacturing sector, astronomically high taxes and the exodus of the Ocean State’s middle class are not being discussed with any depth or productive discourse. Instead, we are showcasing a series of supercilious and self-aggrandizing stars and their ubiquitous tag-a-longs hoping for recognition by association.

Without a concrete idea of which potential governor will attempt to introduce what policy, we are left with ephemeral impressions of the insubstantial on which to base our vote. Visiting windbags simply enhance the shallowness and lessen the substance.

Christopher M. Curran

West Warwick

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  • JohnStark

    Mr. Curran- It's really quite simple. Cast aside all the endorsements from both sides and consider this: If you want another Dem to rubber stamp everything the Dem GA does, vote for Raimondo. Via the state constitution, the GA has the power in this state. If you like the current status of RI, and where it's going, vote for Raimondo. RI is the epicenter of Obamanomics: High rates of government dependency, high taxes, unsustainable public pensions, deplorable public services, burdensome regulations, and high unemployment. In essence, RI is Detroit with salt water. The question is: Does RI want more of the same?

    Wednesday, October 22, 2014 Report this