Ed FitzGerald wrote:Sometimes I think we have some local political people who take themselves way too seriously and think that they are Karl Rove or something. Just open up a gym, let people ask questions, give the candidates equal time and hand them a microphone, and just let it happen. As I told Jim O'Bryan the other day, the mayor's wife can be the moderator for all I care.
As your tag line says, it ain't rocket science.
Ed
As always thanks for coming in.
While I have never heard Ed actually mention the mayor's wife as a moderator. He has been the most open to debate ideas of the three groups I have spoken with. Pretty much "let's go" the other two candidates needed to know who the moderators were, what the questions were, etc.
That being said, only one group has given me contact information for their campaign head, to start the debate going.
Today we will post the rules of the debate, as I have said everyone has thought it was FAIR, INNOVATIVE, and favored NO ONE. A typical LO Project.
Here is a chance for the candidates to put their entire platform out to every voter and resident in Lakewood. I am pretty sure this will be so fair and so complete most voters will see other debates as side shows or redundant. While it seems all the candidates are worried about their schedules and time, I would ask them to consider the time of the voters, and even non voters. This will give them the time to frame their issues, ask the key questions they need to ask, and get them to EVERY VOTER in the city, at no charge.
Let's call this debate the first step towards, frugal thinking and moving the city forward. Something we would hope all the candidates are interested in.
Ed
As you mention "think that they are Karl Rove or something." Lakewood has no time or stomach for that. We have been through that too many times, the WestEnd, as mentioned earlier the overthrow of Bob Seelie, etc. The Lakewood Observer has been dedicated to bringing the city together and moving it forward in a way nothing can come close to. While members of the Observer might have favorites, the LO Project has no bias except for getting the facts to the people, and ferreting out the "Karl Roves" that would spin, doctor, or "arraigned" things to hide the facts.
When I go into the coffee shops, streets and porches around the city, all residents are looking for is a person to take the city, and us through the next four, eight, sixteen or more years. For us the residents and voters to make that choice we need truth not spin, vision not one liners, interaction not avoidance.
Ed while you and I have spoken for 5 months now about the debates, and you know how the LO Project has been on and off again about even holding debates, preferring to help community groups with funding and covering them. We now find ourselves having to hold these debates because the others have become tainted. As you said in your post, to paraphrase, "Maybe the debate put together by Father Duke, and S.S. Cyril and Methodius will tell us more about the candidates than the actual debate would." Is becoming ever clear.
While some call for Mayor Tom George to come debate these very people have no interest in talking with the voters and the residents about the simplest of questions, like, "As it was canceled and reset in 4 hours, is it still the Saint Cyril's debate?" I would imagine it is as Anna is still announcing all the changes. How much did they pay the Public Schools for use of the gymnasium? I was/am in negotiation for using a school, and would love to know if the amount is what I was quoted?
As we are writing a pretty in-depth story about the SS Cyril debate as it was the first debate of the year, we find ourselves wondering more about the whole process than what any candidate has to say. The voters I have spoken with have become troubled with this process, and suspicious. We all know that a debate is NOT the best ways to get information into the hands of voters. It is the way to take cheap shots, search for sound bites, and turn a very, very serious project into theater.
That will be gone. Hopefully from this point forward Lakewood will lead the way in "hiring mayors" the same way you would hire corporate heads, managers, and even baby sitters. Gone forever will be the "Karl Roves" of Lakewood, and the light of truth, honesty, and fair play will shine down on Lakewood.
As Mayor Tom George has opened the doors in city hall, The Lakewood Observer, all of us, will together turn on the lights to the city, for a clean, intelligent look.
Thanks again, you have added much to this discussion.
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