Why does Dave Bing ave such a problem being honest?

[brizee]

The latest in his particular interpretation of the truth.

The Manoogian
His Salary
Running for reelection
This

All come to light eventually and he just looks so FOOLISH.

And people really wonder why citizens aren't too quick to believe anything out of the "powers that be" mouths at face value?

Seriously?

[corktownyuppie]

The latest in his particular interpretation of the truth.


The Manoogian
His Salary
Running for reelection
This

All come to light eventually and he just looks so FOOLISH.

And people really wonder why citizens aren't too quick to believe anything out of the "powers that be" mouths at face value?

Seriously?

We don't agree often, but right now we stand on the same side of this. Jesus Christ. We have enough credibility problems in Detroit. This does not help.

[313WX]

It's not just that Detroit politically is filled with liars, but sociopathic/pathological liars at that.

All politicians lie, but at least when other politicians lie it's either something where they're making no attempt to cover up the lie [[Mitt Romney for example) and if they do pathologically lie, they make sure to cover all of their bases and not get caught in it [[Chicago politicians).

[Buy American]

I think Bing is truly timid and afraid of rocking someone's boat. He wants to please everyone and in the meantime, he is becoming someone who people don't trust.

He and Godbee are talking heads who talk the talk but don't walk the walk.

[Detroitnerd]

What's the problem, people? I thought y'all wanted a businessman to run Detroit like a business. I see a guy lying his ass off to protect his co-executive and I think to myself ...

... classic businessman. Same with Snyder ...

... totally full of shit ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SibF7GIOiSU

[firstandten]

The latest in his particular interpretation of the truth.


The Manoogian
His Salary
Running for reelection
This

All come to light eventually and he just looks so FOOLISH.

And people really wonder why citizens aren't too quick to believe anything out of the "powers that be" mouths at face value?

Seriously?

You forgot the MBA.

[Det_ard]

I don't know anyone in the business world who thought Bing was a good business man. He was constantly being propped up by his customers so that he didn't run his business into the ground. Ford kept him around to bolster their supplier diversity statistics but if they hadn't devoted a few of their own people to holding Bing's hand he would have been out of business a long time ago.

The fact that he's mayor is due to Detroit's shallow talent pool and voter apathy/ignorance/stupidity.

Snyder and Romney on the other hand are savvy and accomplished businessmen. I'll take them any day over a Bing-type.

BTW, I don't see that Bing means ill, he's just not up to the job.

[firstandten]

I think Bing is truly timid and afraid of rocking someone's boat. He wants to please everyone and in the meantime, he is becoming someone who people don't trust.

He and Godbee are talking heads who talk the talk but don't walk the walk.

I don't know if timid is the word I would use, but he does have a need to be seen as the good guy. He doesn't mind making the hard decision like firing somebody from his business for breaking a rule because people understand that.

However political decisions of which many are damned if you do and damned if you don't, seem to be tough for him to make, because a significant number of people will be unhappy and he may not have the thick skin needed in a political job.

I can't help but think that his businesses going under may had some affect with two of those lies, salary and living at the mansion.

At this point in his tenure my trust issue with him is his ability to make any critical decision much less the right decision.

[firstandten]

I don't know anyone in the business world who thought Bing was a good business man. He was constantly being propped up by his customers so that he didn't run his business into the ground. Ford kept him around to bolster their supplier diversity statistics but if they hadn't devoted a few of their own people to holding Bing's hand he would have been out of business a long time ago.

If Joe Blow off the street had the type of support that Bing had with Ford [[GM as well), he would be a successful businessman as well. I have to make a distinction between being a businessman versus being a propped up businessman

[Detroitnerd]

I get it now. Thanks for the clarification. So you're saying that Dave Bing as a businessman was never full of shit. All he did was basically pretend to be a figurehead, take credit for things he didn't do, and get paid off by big corporations as minority window-dressing.

If that isn't being embarrassingly full of shit, I don't know what is.

[Brich]

You forgot the MBA.

Also, date of graduation from Syracuse University.
1995, not 1966

[Scottathew]

... classic businessman. Same with Snyder ...

... totally full of shit ...

Snyder hasn't lied or mislead anyone. Liberals hated him before he was elected, and know that he's done a bunch of stuff that was on the list they still hate him.

The Michigan has a budget surplus.

[SteveJ]

Michigan has a surplus thanks to the car industry coming back and grandma and grandpa's pension. Snyder is the smiling devil. Talks a big game but then stabs you in the chest while he's still smiling and telling you that its good for you.

[313WX]

Michigan has a surplus thanks to the car industry coming back and grandma and grandpa's pension.

Not to mention taking away the only income thousands of state citizens had and cutting education more in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

It would be a real accomplishment if, say, the surplus was generated from responsible spending cuts [[for example, lets try having a part-time legislature and cutting the pay of our legislators, as they're the highest paid in the country, or holding off on road projects that didn't require emergency repair) AND increased revenues, not strictly from spending cuts from programs that help the state's most vulnerable.

[coracle]

Having read your last three posts in this thread Detroitnerd it seems that for anybody to be successful in your world they would have to spend most of their time in the Bathroom.

[poobert]

It's not just that Detroit politically is filled with liars, but sociopathic/pathological liars at that.

Not to split hairs, but to be fair, Dave Bing wasn't from Detroit. He's a liar from Oakland County. He was even long after he was re-elected...with him claiming he spent about 50/50 time between some rented address on the river. Right.

[Novine]

Snyder ran promising to cut taxes for businesses by raising taxes on millions of Michigan taxpayers? I must have missed that ad.

[Novine]

Some of us knew that Bing wasn't up for the job when he first ran and said so. But the powers that be in Detroit thought they knew better.

[313WX]

Not to split hairs, but to be fair, Dave Bing wasn't from Detroit. He's a liar from Oakland County. He was even long after he was re-elected...with him claiming he spent about 50/50 time between some rented address on the river. Right.

True.

I'mnot thrilled about any politician in Detroit/Michigan from a "just get the job done" standpoint.

I can ignore corruption, but not when they're all divisive and impeding any progress in their own way at the same time.

[mwilbert]

I didn't give Bing's likely competence a lot of thought before he was elected because I was sure he was going to be elected regardless, but his actual tenure has been a disappointment. However, it isn't as if there were a deep talent pool fighting for the job that the citizens of Detroit could have chosen from.

It seems to me a serious question going forward as to what sort of highly qualified people you are going to see looking to take this job under the shadow of the consent decree. I saw something in the paper about Mike Duggan contemplating it, and while he isn't exactly what I would want, he might be better than the alternatives. Hard to believe he could be elected though.

[evergreen]

More and more, Bing is starting to remind me of a doddering old man. He struck me as being old and tired when he ran for mayor; he seems to have gotten worse.

The latest situation was just embarrassing. He told a completely unmarketable lie. The council people who called him out on this witnessed his approval of this move. In fact, had that letter been sent without his knowledge and approval, the lawyer who signed it would be subject to discipline by the state bar.

I don't think he's actually lying, I think he's out of it. A very sad time for the city to be utterly without credible and competent leadership.

[Barbara_10]

I didn't give Bing's likely competence a lot of thought before he was elected because I was sure he was going to be elected regardless, but his actual tenure has been a disappointment. However, it isn't as if there were a deep talent pool fighting for the job that the citizens of Detroit could have chosen from.


It seems to me a serious question going forward as to what sort of highly qualified people you are going to see looking to take this job under the shadow of the consent decree. I saw something in the paper about Mike Duggan contemplating it, and while he isn't exactly what I would want, he might be better than the alternatives. Hard to believe he could be elected though.

I would hope Mike Duggan wouldn't get elected.
You think Detroit has problems now....

[Woodward's Cousin]

Worth a read: Bill McGraw on the new web site Deadline Detroit:
Can't Bing Even Tell a Lie Skillfully?



Bill McGraw bill@deadlinedetroit.com

Share10

inShare0

May 21st, 2012, 3:25 PM An intruder beats a storeowner to death with a baseball bat. A gang assaults a world famous gospel singer and steals his fancy car. Officials break ground for a shopping center.
The mayor tells a lie.
Compared to some of the other newsworthy happenings, good and bad, going on in Detroit over the past few days, it’s difficult to rank the lie that Mayor Dave Bing told Thursday.
Bald-faced mayoral lying is disconcerting. True, most politicians lie, but this was a lie about a very important issue, and Bing’s lack of skill in both executing the lie and recovering from it was startling.
Plus, when combined with the sensational crimes, the looming cutbacks in already decimated city departments and the general uncertainty over the city’s financial future, the clumsy untruthfulness contributes to a sense that Detroit is slowly spinning out of control.

Bing’s control of the city actually never has been certain. The rapid turnover among his top aides, the vacillating positions on various issues -- including the light rail project and the need for an emergency manager -- and the confusing approaches to what was supposed to be his signature innovation, the re-sizing of the physical city, have created an impression of an administration that stumbles from one crisis to the next.
Bing is an honorable gentleman whose integrity has been indisputable. His dedication to Detroit is evident just by the fact that he ran for the thankless post that he won.
Yet now, as the city attempts the complex job of fixing its finances while maintaining some semblance of providing basic services to its citizens, his hold on authority is increasingly shaky and there are more and more questions about his judgment.
The mayor's most recent problem developed when the Free Press reported that the law department chief, who works for the mayor, had written a letter to state officials. In it, she argued state law and the city charter bar the city from entering into any contract – such as the consent agreement concerning city finances -- with the state. The reasoning: The state, she said, owes the city money.
State officials basically laughed at the letter. Bing, in speaking to reporters Thursday morning, initially said he “absolutely did not” authorize the letter. Later, his office issued a written statement from Bing that actually repeated the lie, saying, “I did not authorize, nor do I entirely agree with, Counsel’s opinion.”
Taken at face value, that statement alone raised questions about Bing’s grasp of what’s going on in his administration.
Then today, at a breakfast meeting in Birmingham, Bing acknowledged he had failed to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth the day before.

This is what Bing said Friday morning, according to the Free Press: “I was knowledgeable of the fact that a letter was going to be sent to the governor, and I was supportive because I think by law all of us there around the table that we're going to follow the law, we're not going to break the law.
"But I had some issues, quite frankly, because if we look at getting into the legal ramifications of a potential lawsuit, I don't think that we've got the capacity to get into a lawsuit and try to do the things to fix the city."
Huh? What exactly was the mayor trying to say?
Lying with such little panache is another example of how Bing seems like a fish out of water.
It increasingly seems like Bing is a lame duck. His age – 69 – his recent health problems, the turbulence of his first three years and the city’s problems make it almost certain he will be a one-term mayor.
But as of today, he has a little more than a year and a half left in office, as his nearly bankrupt city embarks on the uncertain experiment of right-sizing government and stabilizing the finances.
That is one gargantuan challenge. Is it too late for Bing to demonstrate he is the person for the job? Sadly, he is not giving us many reasons to believe.

• Disqus
  
  • Login
  • About Disqus
  
  
  

• Like
• Dislike
• 
  

Glad you liked it. Would you like to share?

Facebook
Twitter

• Share
• No thanks

Sharing this page …

Thanks! Close


Login
Add New Comment

[SWMAP]

I, on the other hand, think he would be a great mayor for this time in our City. I would vote for him and send money to his campaign. He gets things done.