Originally Posted by
poobert
I thought Hansen Clarke was the greatest when he first ran. I voted for him and even supported him into this past election. However then I looked at his record - what exactly did he accomplish? He introduced legislation that was destined to fail. Outstanding person, it seems, but not a pragmatist. I ended up voting for Peters. Yes, me.
The name of the game is who is going to get the job done. I'm done caring about where people came from, and you know what? I'm sick of the rhetoric.
I think most people "care" on some level. We're programmed to. However every single blessed election - no matter what the office - for the past 30 years in this city has been some self-styled hero talking about how they're going to fight for the "young people and our elderly"
Oh yeah? Our young people are doing everything you can imagine in large numbers except graduating or becoming productive members of society. Our elderly - well, just pick up the damn paper. I'm sure some centenarian just got robbed for their rosary.
People are comparing Duggan to Bing and while there are similarities, Bing always struck me as incredibly inept, way before he got elected. His business was already failing while he was campaigning. The man isn't a leader, and never was, and that was always clear. Clear to everyone except the shadowy "business community" and local media, who served him the election by endlessly fawning over him.
That is the only thing that really troubles me about Duggan. The media and the ever-mysterious "business community" has already given him a de-facto endorsement. People bitch about who we elect in Detroit, but you know what? We don't. They're picked for us. When you drown out the rest of the candidates with free advertising in the form of front page news every day every time the guy farts, what do you expect? The greatest example was Kwamster. Hell, finks like Karmanos continued to bankroll him after he was out of office and in hot water.
I'm supportive of Duggan. Two qualities that are often overlooked are leadership and administrative skill. They take balls of steel, too [[I'm an administrator so I'm a little biased). I think he has those attributes and has demonstrated them, which Bing always sorely lacked. I couldn't care less if Duggan is Afghani or living on a houseboat if he can stop the madness.