If it were not for the egos involved, political campaigns would be far more fun. Most political apparatchiks get their comeuppance early in the game and learn the hard way that the candidate is always the star, not the hangers-on. It is like the old ventriloquist Edgar Bergen was always the politely bland chap in the background. It was the dummy on his lap who made it all work.
Another lesson learned early in politics is the need to assess the strengths and weaknesses of an opponent’s support team. What types of campaigns have they run? What are their favourite tactics and strategic moves? And why has this candidate selected him or her? If you know them, you know what to expect.
Regrettably we seem to fail sometimes in that analysis with people in the same party. We try to work in a spirit of collegiality. We want to take our allies at face value. That only fails us when we are too late in understanding their objectives. When you can feel the knife slide into your back, it is too late to even be disappointed.
But it makes you a bit stand-offish as you get older. You tend to keep your commerce to your own generation. The Warren Kinsella’s of this world are a later breed. Some of us never did understand the supposed “War Room” and his book “Fight the Right” seemed already out of date when published and was easily forgotten.
Mind you it seems understandable that a liberal who has to make his living working for Pierre Karl Péladeau’s Sun Media might feel bitter. It does not really excuse attacks on Toronto mayoralty candidate John Tory on behalf of an undeclared Olivia Chow. The attacks are not only overblown but are damaging to Chow. Having an attack dog on her campaign team does nothing for her image. She has to sell conciliation from the left, not silly, unjustified personal attacks.
From Mayor Rob Ford, you expect unwarranted and unnecessarily vicious charges. Hell, he is better at it and has earned the sanctions for it.
The only advice to Mr. Kinsella is that maybe he can find better content and add more depth to his blogs. He should also note that a blog should always have more substance than a twit in Twitter and he might be a much more respected writer if he tried not to use as many personal pronouns
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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
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