Jeopardy! answer: "Reaching for the gin at 10:00 a.m."
Jeopardy! question: "What happens when you begin the day with WNAS primary election videos?"
This morning is was city council at-large candidates. After listening with disgust to David Aebersold's uninformed clueless prattle about the ruination of Spring Street by villainous two-way traffic slowers, I can say with perfect honesty that I would not vote for him for anything, ever, including the important race to be the guy in Communist Hungary sweeping the streets of cigarette butts with a primitive twig broom.
David Barksdale, self-assigned $10 million savior of City Hall's inhumanely housed white collar workers, those unfortunates doomed to lonely servitude in a heated and air-conditioned building with hot and cold running water and elevators that actually work?
Nope. Don't think so. He mourns buildings, not people; woodenly reads a prepared statement for his video; contradicts himself numerous times therein; and yet again, infuriatingly, gives himself credit for downtown revitalization.
But allow me to be perfectly serious without a trace of sarcasm when I say that among the Democratic Party's five aspirants for city council at-large -- it's a contested race, folks -- Christina Estill's video for WNAS is the best, hands down. It begins at 27:03.
She speaks personally and personably about social issues and housing, sincerely and directly. It's impressive because she's real and utterly without pretense. Estill has my vote. She's exactly the sort of citizen we need seated at the council table.
I'll also vote for Maury Goldberg, who also is comfortable being himself, and rightly reminds viewers that he served five terms as a councilman (ending in 2003). He rambles a bit in his video, but rallies and touches on several important points, including up-front support for indie business entrepreneurs, union and mass transit. Has anyone else talked about these? His video begins at 32:26.
I'm not going to hold Jason Applegate's video against him, because I know just how hard it is to face the camera and make one's points. Maybe it was an "off" day. But at least Applegate made a video. I like both Sam Charbonneau and Chris Fitzgerald as individuals, but neither of them heeded the call from WNAS.
Can we be honest?
The Democratic Party's hierarchy desperately wants a fall slate of Charbonneau, Fitzgerald and Applegate. These three were handpicked, weren't they?
Chairman Adam "Tricky" Dickey does not want to see either Estill or Goldberg on that ticket. It's another fix by the master of the dark arts, and my problem with this is okay, fine, the fix is in, but at the very least it's good form to pretend to give a damn even when you're aware you've been anointed by the party's coolest kids.
Applegate is trying, and he gets credit for doing a video and getting those signs out. Unfortunately he also gets demerits for having done nothing to update his official non-Facebook web site, which still features 2018 commissioners' race data.
As it stands (albeit pre-primary), if it were November and I had to pick three candidates from all the at-large candidates currently declared, they'd be Estill, Goldberg and Al Knable. Naturally this equation might change given the outcome of the primary.
The preceding are my opinions, and my opinions alone. I'm happy to discuss them further; just let me know via the usual channels.
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