Endorsements

Earlier today, on the steps of the state Capitol, Roy Barnes rolled out the endorsements of Andrew Young, Shirley Franklin and Lee May.  If you think endorsements matter, I suppose these are some of the best.  I tend to think the usefulness of endorsements is overblown, with Tom Harkin’s endorsement of Dean in 2004 being one of the notable exceptions.  Dubose Porter’s campaign must agree with me, which is why they chose to issue a press release today on their endorsement by a blog.  Is it July 20th yet, y’all?


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37 responses to “Endorsements”

  1. The Thunder Avatar
    The Thunder

    Young and Franklin don’t have separate political machines.

  2. Steve Avatar
    Steve

    I’m new to the site, but it appears that most people on here work, or have worked, in politics. That being said, I think most of us know that endorsements from people are only good if the endorsor is willing to campaign for the person they are endorsing. For instance, if Young and Franklin fund raise for Barnes their endorsement could mean a lot. Also, if the unleash their political organizations behind him it would help out a lot. I’m not sure if either is the case, so it’s too early to tell whether or not this will help Barnes. Just endorsing someone without any follow through will likely backfire as shown by the comments on this site.

    Regarding endorsements from blogs, newspapers, etc, those probably don’t help out at all except to increase name recognition.

  3. Jen B. Avatar
    Jen B.

    I think they’ve gone downhill since Page left town.

  4. Daniel Avatar
    Daniel

    Actually, its a fair thought. Whatever did happen to our Democratic Happy Hours?

  5. JMPrince Avatar

    OK Daniel, I need to state here the 3-4 words that I claimed were the scarcest phase ever seen on the Net: ‘Sorry, I’m happily married’. Long time too. Our offices are sorta in Atl, so I’m there regularly. But as a yes, very cranky old man, I don’t get out drinking much anymore. If that’s what was meant. And I’ll also mention that at the moment we’re not hiring, we’re full up.

    BTW, I did see the update from Dustin on my questions, and I’ve responded to him & thanked him for it too. JMP

  6. Daniel Avatar
    Daniel

    you’re fascinating. i want to meet you someday.
    do you come to atlanta often? 🙂

  7. JMPrince Avatar

    Well evidently this morn they deigned to answer some of my questions. While whining all the way while doing so. And Daniel called that ‘mature’. I’m not sure it clarified many of the issues much, and it didn’t with the ‘who was voting bit’. Oh well, maybe next year they’ll have it down.

    But Yep. If we could just get more people to read & comprehend a bit better Jerry, there would be fewer of the simple issues, right? But yeah. We hire folks right out of school. We’ve got the strictest requirements in the business evidently. You need to be able to speak, read & write English in complete sentences & paragraphs. Naturally, 80-90% of all college grads fail this simple test for one reason or another. From the Ivy Leagues all the way to Community College types. It’s good to be reminded that it’s disarmingly common in the larger population, and is seemingly a natural occurrence today. We’ve been hiring all throughout the current Depression. Most days? We still think fondly of going back to a 2 person shop. You’d think that good pay w/ decent benes & a nice, quiet, indoor, stable work environment we’d be getting plenty of qualified folks. But no, mostly they’ve not got a clue, as in our colleagues here & there. SSDD. JMP

  8. JerryT Avatar
    JerryT

    7 “again”‘s in four short paragraphs. That’s got to be a violation of something. You are banned from using the word “again” for 3 days. 🙂

  9. JMPrince Avatar

    Hey Daniel, Thanks once again for not reading my comments, and for responding like yes, a petulant child. Again, my posts were not ‘the same’. They were far shorter ‘over there’ In fact? They were just about short enough to be tweets, almost. But Not. The Same. Reading them might tell you that.

    Once again, I was not particularly complaining about WHO those guys endorsed as to HOW they made that decision. And who made it.

    Is anyone reading that? Again: How was it done & by whom? The Basics here. Not knowing the ‘new’ pick up crew there, I’d naturally assumed you were part of it. Sorry. I’m also sorry that you have to be a stand in for willingly defending pretty sloppy & lackadaisical work there. I simply asked, again & again how did this get done & how the endorsements were made. That’s it. Now some might consider that an ‘attack’, but you’ll forgive me for suspecting that you really need to try and Read & understand the question before you might respond to it. And of course none of the principals over @ GL have. Now or much ever actually.

    And as to your other continual gratuitous ad hominem attacks: No, it’s not an act, and yes it’s a strange predilection to not suffer idiocy without notice or complaint. And as anyone might tell you, that’s ageless. Again, sorry to tax you with all the words. JMP

  10. Sara Avatar
    Sara

    I only arrived for the second half of Shirley Franklin’s tenure, and so all I saw was a miserable failure. And I don’t care if she’s not as bad as the criminal who came before her or other miserable failures GA Democrats have known and hated. She was an absentee do-nothing mayor with an attitude for her second 4 years. And her endorsements make me immediately start looking at the other guy.

  11. Kimberly Smith Avatar
    Kimberly Smith

    Geesh with the lecture.

    Dubose… anti gay, anti choice, didn’t push back with various bills aimed at the Black community, took a weak stance on the Voter ID bill, has not demonstrated any ability to lead either as Minority Leader or in the small circles he commands.

    He makes crappy deals with Republicans and honestly I couldn’t tell you what the man stands for. I get that he’s “against” things.. but what is he for? Besides the sales tax thing, which the GOP almost punked him for.

    Liberal he ain’t, on a good day he’s a Moderate if you are being charitable.

  12. Jen B. Avatar
    Jen B.

    “…but your ridiculous crotchety old man routine is too much for me.

    HA. It’s too bad we can’t rate comments around here.

  13. Daniel Avatar
    Daniel

    You have a fair point, Kimberly. Although your statement wasn’t a basic inquiry of information. It was a bit more attacking than it might have actually been had you been truly expecting a legitimate and respectful response. Tone is important, even in the written word.

    You have totally valid points about DuBose. Points that I imagine would resonate well with the readers of this blog and probably even the other. But opening with an attack means the only person that will engage you will be the holier than thou youngin who’s traveled to athens before. 🙂

    So. Dubose. You disagree with a self avowed ‘Liberal’ blog giving their endorsement to him because…..

  14. Kimberly Smith Avatar
    Kimberly Smith

    Daniel, it would also have been helpful if the process was part of the original post. I just posted same comment there, as well as noting that in their “About” section they don’t have any information. Say you are a candidate or staff and you get this inquiry, you go to their blog only to find there isn’t any contact info or a way to figure out who they are. Would you bother?

    And yes, I posted this in TWO places, it’s kind of like talking to the person directly to their face, and then hearing the issue some where else and commenting on it. Personally I’d expect to have it said to my face aka their blog if I was also going to comment elsewhere.

  15. Kimberly Smith Avatar
    Kimberly Smith

    Daniel, I’m confused, are you saying Dubose didn’t do these things?

  16. Daniel Avatar
    Daniel

    “you young folks at UGA?” haha, a little off base there. i’m not affiliated with that blog or school, nor have i ever been. (full disclosure: i have lived in athens and worked on campaigns there, years ago. for several very full months. that being disclosed, i’ve been there twice this year, and will probably find myself there several times over the summer, all on non blog or university business. in fact, i’ll probably be imbibing. i am, in fact, younger than some. 🙂

    thanks for the ‘how to post a comment’ help. it means a lot, i know how practiced at it you are. (tongue in cheek, but we all know its true 😉

    sorry to offend on the ‘bot’ comment though. you’re obviously a real live person. but you AND kimberly did post the same comments in multiple spots, which is behavior deemed ‘botty.’

    that being said, you still seem to have a stick up your ass about what you perceive to be the errors of young people…not by their errors, but because they are simply young. i hadnt written you off before, (although does anyone ever read such long comments?) but your ridiculous crotchety old man routine is too much for me.

    then again, i’m only 27. it doesnt matter to you what i think, does it? cheers, indeed!

  17. JMPrince Avatar

    Wow Daniel, You poor babies!! To think someone took the time to ask you simply ‘How you came to these decisions & assessments?’ And you young folks @ UGA seemingly just, well wilt in the sunshine at such a simple, one paragraph request. Then come over here and whine about it. Under 100 words there, and now called ‘pollution’ too. UGA’s finest, and again, evidently some folks still can’t & won’t read let alone try to write in English. So from the top in simple bullet points so even the Frosh among you might understand it:

    1.) None of my comments were ‘cut & paste’. All were again, simple direct requests as to how you came to your assessments. How many people were involved in voting, & even perhaps what were the votes if such were recorded. But especially what objective criteria were used in your ‘scores’. If any.

    2.) Now if you’d actually bothered to Read & perhaps strain to understand my posts? You’d know that they were not indeed the same. They certainly were not ‘bot’ generated. And I post them in several places as I’ve never gotten a satisfactory answer over at your, yes, student blog.

    3.) Again, not much of an ‘attack’, just some very simple questions about the process whereby you came to your decisions. And again, please try and read All of the prior posts on the issue. I know it’s hard & taxing & all with all those word things. And no, I did not really expect nary a one of you to understand what exactly I was asking. So that’s why I posted it over here too.

    4.) Again. No ‘teeth barred’. Just asking some simple questions that seemingly you don’t want to answer, or don’t think anyone over there really ought to. Or really can’t answer. But everyday you get up and slam someone in that ebbil Gumminit for something ‘non transparent’ or something they’ve done coming in less than perfect in your opinion. I’m guessing you don’t even see the irony in that let alone the hypocrisy. But yeah, that would come in with all that ancient reading. Perhaps. JMP

  18. Jen B. Avatar
    Jen B.

    I never said she was in the same league as those folks, but thanks for playing.

  19. steve Avatar
    steve

    Let’s save the charade about Shirley’s legacy. I can tell you’re being totally objective in your assessment. Regarding disappointments. Bill Campbell comes to mind. So does Thurbert Baker. So does Saxby Chambliss. So does Zell Miller. In my book, Shirley isn’t in the same league as those folks.

  20. Jen B. Avatar
    Jen B.

    I agree that Shirley inherited a bad situation, which is why she’s merely a disappointment not some sort of miserable failure. Why don’t you tell us what Shirley’s legacy should be?

  21. Steve Avatar
    Steve

    Yep, you’re right. Blame her for everything wrong, but give her credit for nothing that’s right. That’s why we have so many qualified candidates in politics these days.

  22. Jen B. Avatar
    Jen B.

    I’m always amazed when I meet someone who is surprised that some people were / are disappointed in Mayor Franklin. And I think, “Where has this person been for eight years?” Perhaps expectations were too high when she was elected in 2001, but for many of us, her tenure was full of disappointment on the budget, sewers, transportation and the aftermath of the Kathryn Johnston slaying. And every time I hit a pothole in this city, I think.. I thought Shirley Franklin was going to fill these herself?

  23. Steve Avatar
    Steve

    I thought those endorsements were good for Roy.

    “Mayor of Disappointment” Damn! What did she do to get your panties in bunch?

  24. sndeak Avatar
    sndeak

    Oops…Missed and important race

    School Super – Brian Westlake!!!!

  25. Jen B. Avatar
    Jen B.

    Truth be told, I am more likely to consider the endorsement of random blog commenters than Mayor of Disappointment Shirley Franklin.

    so when some one throws up a flag and says ‘this is who i support,’ engage them in conversation. dont tear them down in some childlike banter.

    And I completely agree with this.

  26. Daniel Avatar
    Daniel

    wow. some young folks go public with how they feel on a list of candidates.
    and before there is any discussion on their choices, several folks decided to charge after them,
    teeth bared. jmp and kimberly, ya’ll should just be ashamed at your petty foolish attempt to shout down little more than the perspectives of some young members of our party as soon as they speak. (additionally you both should probably be ashamed of your dual postings on this blog as well as galiberal…are you sure you’re not blog bots? i’m not convinced.)

    i find the porter reference to a blog endorsement a bit, ah, graspy. 🙂 then again, i find the young and franklin endorsements a bit whorish, so there you go.

    most of us have spent months, and will continue to spend the next few months, selling our own candidates, knocking around the actions of those we dislike (and probably much more than we’d prefer, pointing out the blunders of the candidates we do prefer)….so when some one throws up a flag and says ‘this is who i support,’ engage them in conversation. dont tear them down in some childlike banter.

    and whatever you do, lord. whatever you do…dont post cut and pasted responses on every blog. its bad enough, the level of pollution some folks leave in blog comments…we dont need them repeated verbatim in multiple blogs.

    as for martin…now that you’re no longer the communications director, its nice to see you’ve taken to actually releasing media to the public.

    damn people. lets do better than this.

  27. sndeak Avatar
    sndeak

    Let it be screamed from the rooftops that I, Steven Nicholas Deak Jr., owner of no active blog, do hereby endorse the following candidates in the 2010 Democratic Primary….

    US. Senate – RJ Hadley

    Gov. – David Poythress

    Lt. Gov. Carol Porter

    SoS – Mike Mills

    Labor – Darryl Hicks

    AG – Ken Hodges (this was a tough one)

    Did it work? Did I make a difference? Bummer.

    I thank BfD for the opportunity to pimp my candidates : )

  28. JMPrince Avatar

    Yes, agreed about Carol. I’ve seen Dubose out on the hustings too, and like most of our ‘top tier’ Gov. candidates, he’s impressive too, with his own campaign premise & issues focus.

    Be that as it may, Ol’ Roy said yesterday when interviewed about said endorsements that he fully expected a run-off. Which BTW? Is likely the best long term strategic approach to the campaign. JMP

  29. Mel Avatar

    I’m very impressed with Carol Porter’s performance this cycle. I’ve seen her at every political event I’ve attended this year, but haven’t spotted Dubose once.

    She’s working hard and never stops moving or talking about her issues. She looks good and speaks well and doesn’t back down. As well, she has that necessary political talent of remembering faces, names and stories of almost everyone she meets.

    I’m thinking of doing a profile on her. She’s a natural at this, and I don’t understand why she hasn’t run before. Maybe it has something to do with having to raise four boys. Those skills should come in handy under the dome.

  30. JMPrince Avatar

    True, still she’s a cipher who got in @ the last minute & has evidently made a point of it to remain pretty much ‘incognito’. So again we’ve got unknown cipher vs known quantity. Which again is evidently not an uncommon choice. So yes technically, she’s got opposition. Not much mind you though. JMP

  31. Actually... Avatar
    Actually…

    “Seeing how there’s no one else running for the Dem primary for Lt. Gov.”

    Carol Porter does have competition in the Dem primary.

  32. JMPrince Avatar

    Good points about the vital importance of historical memory here. Again they’ve got their obvious biases, ‘natch. Seeing how there’s no one else running for the Dem primary for Lt. Gov., their reasoning, no matter how basic, biased or even personal is a bit better informed with Carol than others made there. Personally, I think more of them (The Leg) need GPS ankle bracelets and breath-o-lyzer key switches for their cars/autos. Dorm monitors (RA/Moms/House ‘mistresses’) would be & are easily circumvented. They mostly really need something this side of supervised parole, but sadly that’s still too expensive to implement!
    JMP

  33. Princess Avatar
    Princess

    I particularly love this logic for an endorsement “I am supporting Carol because, as I saw when she dropped her son off for college, we need a dorm-mom in the State Senate.” Let’s say 4 steps forward for sexism and zero steps back for women leadership.

    Or the fact that they endorsed Terry Coleman for Labor Commissioner. Can you get more anti-gay than Terry Coleman. Coleman’s skillsets as a Dem Speaker allowed the anti-gay constitutional amendment to get on the ballot.

    But, I guess if your knowledge of Georgia politics only stretches back to 2006, then you can understand why the Georgia Liberal boys do not realize that they picked mostly establishment candidates. Gail Buckner over Michael Mills or Michael Thurmond over RJ Hadley?

  34. Mel Avatar

    This is hysterical.

  35. JMPrince Avatar

    Well no matter what they’re calling themselves? The ‘Monster Raving Loony Party’ with ‘Screaming Lord Such’ (Dept’d)? http://www.omrlp.com/

    We don’t care much. Just try and make some more rational decisions based upon recognized & perhaps yes, published criteria that folks might be able to follow & attend to. Or question as the case may be. Again, pretty basic. Blocking & tacking, people. Blocking & tackling.

    Not just picking out the ‘cutest’ player from the stands for whatever reason, and then erstwhile anointing him/her ‘the better candidate/player’ based upon otherwise obscure or perfectly unknown criteria of your own imagining. That’s amateur & juvenile & not much help to anyone. Endorsed or not! JMP

  36. Kimberly Smith Avatar
    Kimberly Smith

    Oh dear, I sense some one has gotten well ahead of their actual accomplishments.

    Liberal is such a broad term don’tcha think. I mean rilly what does it mean, what do you stand for?

    RE: Dubose
    It certainly can’t mean “equality”, since Dubose voted to send that awful anti-gay constitutional amendment banning gay marriage along to the dim and narrow minded electorate.. What about privacy? Has he ever though of that… um no, not that we can tell the man is anti choice.

    Once again, the pen/blog seems mightier than the sword.. naturally I’ll take the sword, so much easier to shaft people with.

  37. JMPrince Avatar

    Yes, saw that come across. Again we’re in desperate need of more transparency here too. If we can demand this of our government, we can expect the same from even, yes bloggers.

    So again please tell us how did you arrive at such a decision, how many were voting, what were the votes & what were the most important criteria considered for such endorsements? Evidently, presently as all(?) students, the Dubose endorsement relied heavily on his efforts in the educational area this past Leg. session. Which is fine actually, just make it more explicit and state, ‘due to his support in the educational arena this past year, we graded him more highly.’ Now reading Between the lines? You might be able to glean that, but they never really come out and make it explicit. And then there’s a few obviously boneheaded choices that anyone calling themselves ‘Lib’ might properly cringe at. With little reasoning behind why this choice over that. Again, not how the pros do it. Which is the point. You want your endorsement to actually mean something? Make it so people might follow the logic. Whatever it is. Somewhat. If there’s much of any there. JMP

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