(no subject)
Here in Arizona (and, apparently, in national news as well), there are news reports circulating that Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords will be running for John Kyl's soon-to-be-empty Senate seat.
Seriously?
The news reports are that she would have been a shoo-in even if she hadn't been shot, which is far from the case, but that, now she has been, the seat is basically hers for the asking.
Let's think about this for a moment.
Point: She was shot in the head three months ago. Yes, her recovery as reported has been remarkable. But she is not yet capable of a real conversation, she is not walking around (both of which have been reported, but later clarified as "Well, not REALLY...") She's nowhere near being ready to even go back to work. What makes anyone think she will be ready to run for her own seat next year, much less a statewide one? No matter how miraculous her recovery has been thus far, it is not 100% and it is not likely ever to be 100%, however much everyone (myself included) wish that it might be. Think about other people who have had such grievous injury - a recovery to even a vestige of what she was will take YEARS, not just a few weeks.
Point: She only won re-election in her own, fairly liberal, district in November by a very slim margin.
Point: Yes, there will be a sympathy vote. People who vote for a candidate out of sympathy don't deserve to vote. And anyone who votes, out of sympathy, for someone who is only partially recovered from (I'll say it again) a gunshot wound to the head deserves what they get. Which will be a Senator who really can't do the job.
A more likely scenario - her husband (an astronaut who will be on the last shuttle run - he'll have some free time, one supposes) runs for the seat, after the fashion of Mary Bono and Mel Carnahan's wife. IMHO, he'd be a more formidable candidate.
Seriously?
The news reports are that she would have been a shoo-in even if she hadn't been shot, which is far from the case, but that, now she has been, the seat is basically hers for the asking.
Let's think about this for a moment.
Point: She was shot in the head three months ago. Yes, her recovery as reported has been remarkable. But she is not yet capable of a real conversation, she is not walking around (both of which have been reported, but later clarified as "Well, not REALLY...") She's nowhere near being ready to even go back to work. What makes anyone think she will be ready to run for her own seat next year, much less a statewide one? No matter how miraculous her recovery has been thus far, it is not 100% and it is not likely ever to be 100%, however much everyone (myself included) wish that it might be. Think about other people who have had such grievous injury - a recovery to even a vestige of what she was will take YEARS, not just a few weeks.
Point: She only won re-election in her own, fairly liberal, district in November by a very slim margin.
Point: Yes, there will be a sympathy vote. People who vote for a candidate out of sympathy don't deserve to vote. And anyone who votes, out of sympathy, for someone who is only partially recovered from (I'll say it again) a gunshot wound to the head deserves what they get. Which will be a Senator who really can't do the job.
A more likely scenario - her husband (an astronaut who will be on the last shuttle run - he'll have some free time, one supposes) runs for the seat, after the fashion of Mary Bono and Mel Carnahan's wife. IMHO, he'd be a more formidable candidate.