Lessons Learned in CA-04
Somebody put significant effort into replying to one of my most recent posts claiming to be CA-04 candidate Michael Hamersley (that's one M, mind you...) Wow, I had no idea that little ol' me held so much sway.
I just want to clarify a few things:
- I am in no way associated with the Brown campaign! I like what I know of the candidate so far and I chose to put his banner on my blog. (I thought I was entitled to do that...)
- I am simply a lowly blogger, one of tens of thousands. I have barely any readership, so far...
- I am not an "ass," as the commenter (I've no proof it's really Hamersley) said. I am a constituent of CA-04 and I am a registered voter.
So, to close, I just want to thank the commenter for putting me in my place. I've learned my lesson. A citizen and a constituent should never express their opinions regarding political candidates.
posted by Zac @ 8:12 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Though I personally care little for politics, it seems to me that in order to function as any kind of political candidate, whether running for the local sheriff's position or president of the United States, one needs to maintain a certain level of professionalism. Candidacy of this sort carries with it a certain level of celebrity, and those of celebrity status must accept that the general public is going to hold opinion on one's character which may or may not be accurate. Personal attacks against anyone, especially a farm-league blogger (I was going to say minor league, but even that sounded a little too grand), are in no way a proper response and quite clearly demonstrate a lack of grace and professionalism on the part of Mr. Hamersley (if indeed the poster was who he claimed).
The proper response, I think, would have been to patiently and gently, in a non-adversarial tone, rebut any misconceptions he felt you were holding. Instead, he launches into his own defense with all the ferocity of someone posting in a flame war on a comic book message board. In short, he comes off as a nutcase. Perhaps he ran across your blog during a round of late night drinking/internet surfing or something like that.
In case Mr. Hamersley comes back, I'd also like to point out that most blogs are written for the purpose of entertaining others and therefore may occasionally contain some amount of hyperbole for humourous effect. He's a public figure now, he should learn to deal with it.
We have to hope that this was not truly someone who thinks he is going to be a candidate for Congress.
I had some more specific comments (think: your vs. you're, blog citations without links, etc), but after seeing that Charisma2006's profile is completely blank, my hope is it's a hoax ...? Because if signing up anonymously for a blogger account just to reply to an attack is indeed charisma, then I don't know what isn't.
Post a Comment
<< Home