Why is Mihos running as an Independent? George Washington convinced him!
WHEN GEORGE Washington announced his intent to depart the presidency, he left the American people with a stern warning regarding political parties: ''They are likely in the course of time and things to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government."
If only he could see things today.
Just like the rest of Miho's Op-Ed, it sure does sound good, at least to most people. However, let's not forget what's fueling his campaign: money from big business. I'm sure George Washington wouldn't be a big fan of that, either. Mihos is no different than any other candidate running for governor - except Deval Patrick, if we are to believe today's story - in that he has huge amounts of cash to fuel his campaign.
During the rest of Miho's Op-Ed, he sounded like a moderate. He wants political reform - stripping power away from lobbyists. He wants to fight for the little people "in a state where residents are leaving in droves." Most of all, he doesn't want to sound a thing like the current Republicans leading this state ("The politics of confrontation has replaced cooperation. How else to explain the stalled economic stimulus package or the travels and tribulations of Governor Romney?").
I have to say I'm stunned. Mihos is supposed to have a big mouth. However, his Op-Ed is exactly what the people will want to hear. His polling numbers will probably go up before they go down, which will hurt all the other candidates in this election.
However, the question remains, who will it hurt the most? Republicans or Democrats? If Mihos continues to sound like a man of the people - one never knows. Maybe I could be surprised, maybe his policies as governor would match his efforts in writing to invoke George Washington (who am I kidding?).
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4 comments:
Seems like a decent fellow, and he understands that boooth political parties are responsible for the apostasy in our state government, not just the republicans. I even had to pay a fee in high school, and I was just on the Mock Trial Team. pfft...
Massachusetts makes more money from the lottery than it does from taxes...how come nobody ever talks about reforming how we spend lottery money and reforming our lottery system?
Student fees at my former high school - two years after I left - rose to $300 a sport and $50 an activity (ie mock trial). I would have had to pay well over $1,000 some years... except, that would have been out of the question.
In any event, there are serious reasons for that. One is the fact that some towns have large business districts and others can only rely on property taxes, which was my town's problem.
States need to pick up the costs for extra curricular activities and special education - even if that means sending less money to towns. It would be a happy trade and, in the case of special education, something the state was *supposed to do* with educational reform - but never kept its promise.
In any event, Joe, I hope you can look beyond the rhetoric on Mihos. It'll be interesting to watch him campaign, but if he sticks to those promises, he'd probably be the first ever. Call it a gut instinct, but Christy Mihos is no George Washington, even when it only comes to special interests. Although, I'd do anything to keep Healey out of office...
A lot of people dont like Romney/Healey for being social conservatives, but you can't say they haven't done a good job fixing the state's finacial situation. Or rather, how would O'Brien have done a better job?
I don't know about that.
Who knows what O'Brien would have done? As far as fixing the fiscal situation? That has as much to do with an economic rebound as it does Mitt Romney. However, I don't think he drastically hurt the state, I just don't think he ever really cared about it.
I didn't particularly mind his fiscal policy - I'm fiscally very moderate in that I don't think the state should spend any money it doesn't have (and I don't think we should have extremely high taxes either; somewhere in the middle is fine). However, we haven't spent money we didn't have in a long time - at least purposefully - and you can't say it's just because we've had Republican governors (just like I don't say Clinton was the sole reason for our economic surpluses in the 90s). Furthermore, it's been a long time since "Taxachusetts" was anything other than Republican propaganda - it has been baseless for years now.
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