I was on my way to a lunch meeting a few weeks ago to discuss some campaign business when I saw ‘The Billboard’. I stopped, looked, looked again, scratched my head, and proceeded to lunch.
I asked the guy I was meeting with about the billboard. I could tell he wasn’t thrilled with it and all he could say in a disgusting tone was, ‘At least it doesn’t lie’. We didn’t discuss it any further but I think we both knew that it wouldn’t be the last we’d hear about ‘The Billboard’.
I woke up late this morning to a text message that was left at 5:30am saying that Chester made the news.
Of course, I wondered if there was another tragic crime story only to find that all the ruckus was over ‘The Billboard’.
At breakfast, Emma brought me the Daily Times and there it was again, on the front page. And Gil Spencer did a column. Even Phil Heron wrote about it on his blog.
As I figured, we are certainly hearing about ‘The Billboard’ again, aren’t we?
To me, it’s a simple case of The Pimping of President Obama.
Up until today, I think most voters have basically ignored ‘The Billboard’. But now they have been influenced by the Daily Times and TV news to see ‘The Billboard’ as offensive and misleading.
The Republicans, refusing to just campaign on the strength of being a Republican, have decided that by aligning with President Obama it will win over the Democratic registered voters.
The Republicans, refusing to just campaign on the strength of being a Republican, have decided that by aligning with President Obama it will win over the Democratic registered voters.
Personally, I think ‘The Billboard’ cleverly straddles the fence on being misleading (or not) which is okay with me. But, I would have preferred that they didn’t use President Obama’s photo, and wish they had mentioned Strong Cities-Strong Communities.
To take ridiculous to a higher level, the Democrats say in the St. Rep. Kirkland ad that ‘Wendell Butler has never met...Barack Obama but I have.’
So what? Who cares? What difference does that make? Did Bulter claim that he met Obama somewhere?
Butler certainly had his chance when Obama campaigned at Widener a week before the 2008 presidential election. Why any Mayor wouldn’t publicly welcome a presidential candidate to his town still puzzles me.
Yet, I think the photo of Obama and Kirkland was from that same event, 3 years ago. I have reason to believe that Kirkland doesn’t have a strong personal relationship with Obama either.
To take ridiculous to the highest level, the Fred Green for Youth Activist poster takes the case.
Here, you have President Obama looking like the wizard from Wizard of Oz, a shrunken Fred Green, John Linder, and Joe Biden all sharing an unbalanced poster asking ‘Chester can you hear me?’
Huh?
At least Corporate America, LLC admits to paying for that stupid ad. We haven’t seen their CEO Rick Starr (no connection to Ron Star) around Chester for a while but I hear he’s camped out in Wilmington. More amazingly, there is no position of U.S. Youth Activist on the November 8th ballot.
In conclusion, I would hope that everyone who plans to vote simply erases all references to President Obama in the Chester campaign literature they see around town.
Please vote based on what our two fine candidates have to offer and not on how they have pimped Obama.
I was in the city this weekend and I was surprised to see all of the signs all over. To me it seemed like an attempt at capitalizing on the lack of political knowledge of the citizens in an attempt to gain a win on many fronts.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, I'm sure everyone in the city knows know Mayor Butler is and probably voted for him last time around. And of course everyone knows who Obama is and chances are they voted for him to. Given that Chester was selected to receive the SCSC nod it would appear as an endorsement for the mayor other than the black eye that it really is for the city (spotlighting the problems not getting the funding).
Second I'm not sure that everyone understands that the colors on the banners are for the Republican party. Especially when most residents are registered Democrats.
Lastly, I believe, no, I know that the mayor is capitalizing on the popularity of the President among blacks and to my first point, aligning himself as the candidate of choice as if Obama himself were directly involved in the political scene in Chester or in the SCSC selection process.
This is why people need to do their research on politics rather than read signs and watch commercials.
Well said.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that the SC2 program can benefit Chester. I've learned that there are a few project that are difficult to negotiate and having some real people on board to help facilitate getting through the government's 'red tape' has real potential.
That seems to be all that SC2 has promised so let's hope that they will at least deliver in that capacity.
I saw the billboard and thought it was deplorable on so many levels.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about voting for butler before, but right about now both of those assholes seem like backwoods bammas to me.
They need to get some substance behind them.
- Melody
I’m glad you posted this – I was waiting for it :-)
ReplyDeleteI am upset that Butler would go to those lengths to “trick” the people who don’t read up on politics, and would associate him with Obama just because of the signs. I also feel that a person who does that should NOT be in office anymore because then I ask myself, what else has he “tricked” us into? All of the money that pours into Chester, be it small or large amounts, don’t go to the most beneficial places for the residents, but rather the most beneficial for the politicians. It’s a sad shame he stooped that low. Maybe if he’d put Beyonce he would’ve been better off :-)
Lol@ Mrs. Richardson.
ReplyDeleteI agree tho.
I'm sure Butler has at least heard a beyonce song before
so in his mind, he probably considers them to be good
friends. Perhaps even co-workers, if you will.
- Melody
Somebody tell me what you think of the other two posters.
ReplyDelete