Attention, voters of Wisconsin! However pissed you might be about the state of the economy, or the state of the nation, I have a new reason for you to not vote for Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson.
It's not his abhorrent issue positions (which he has kept purposefully mum for the past several months). Nor is it the amenable qualities of Johnson's Democratic opponent, Senator Russ Feingold (though he certainly has them).
It is the simple fact that his campaign is the biggest insult to the intelligence of the American voter in my memory. Ron Johnson wants you to elect him on spec, without giving you any indication of how he will use the office to which he wants you to entrust him.
And, despite being pressed about it, he refuses to stop hiding his true agenda (emphasis mine):
Johnson told reporters that he viewed his campaign as a job interview with voters.
“I don’t have access to all of the information. Certainly, I don’t have the time to dig into these issues and come up with, ‘Here’s the solution.’ All I can honestly do is convey who I am. This is my background. An accountant. A business owner. That’s the level of experience I would take, the background I would take to those problems and start addressing them. That would be after I get elected. Then I would start doing the job.
Pathetic.
I can't speak for the rest of you, of course, but every single job interview I have ever sat in on demanded the interviewee to explain what they were going to do in the job that they were seeking.
When I interviewed thirteen years ago for my current "day job", I was asked what lessons I would employ in the classroom, what effective lessons I had taught in the past, what my strategy of classroom management would be, and a host of other questions centering around my plan for the job I was asking them to entrust me with. Indeed, the "job interview" focused on little else.
But RoJo is convinced that voters desperately in need of solutions don't care about the details when it comes to the economy, or jobs, or the scourge of homeless veterans (his indifference to the latter issue providing Senator Feingold with an ideal opening for a campaign ad).
All he has to do is talk about being a businessman, mutter some platitudes about fixing the economy and creating jobs. And wait for the votes to come in. Then...and only then...will he deign to let us know what he will do with the power that the voters are granting him.
Honestly, I almost have more respect for Sharron Angle or Christine O'Donnell. While their views might be abhorrent and several miles from the mainstream, at least they are willing to share them with the voters, and allow them to judge accordingly. This is the worst kind of politics. One can only pray that the voters of Wisconsin, out of anger or disenchantment, reward him for it.