I just loved Dan Telvock’s account of this week’s debate between Del. Dick Black and David Poisson in the Leesburg Today. The audience was ready to run Black out on a rail, and fair enough — the joker was an ass, doing things like repeatedly referring to David Poisson as “David Poison.” After reading the article, I felt like I was actually at the debate. I also enjoyed Black Out 2005’s account.
You’ve got to feel bad for Poisson. It’s like he’s running against a four-year-old.
Undecided voters at debates like that one can fault a candidate for the rudeness of his supporters, though. It’s not clear whether the audience member shouting, “Show some respect!” was referring to Del. Black mispronouncing Mr. Poisson’s surname or the other audience member screaming that Black was a jerk.
If he really mispronounced his opponent’s name on purpose…well, that’s lame.
I feel worse for the people in Black’s district, who’ve been represented for years by a four-year-old. I really hope Poisson clinches this, and I have great hopes for his campaign.
I especially liked Black’s contention that we have to cut taxes because the economy is about to go into a “downward spiral.” That’s pretty amusing considering that the entire justification for Gilmore’s “No Car Tax” (that Warner just dug us out of) was that we didn’t need anything to replace it because “economic growth” would always pay for it. I guess if you’ve already decided the answer is “Cut Taxes!,” it doesn’t much matter if the reason makes sense.
What we saw was the disbelief that this man can actually get elected over and over finally reaching the boiling point. Reasonable people assume with every election that this time, surely, people will turn out in droves to rid themselves of the embarrassment that is Dick Black – and every time low turnout has allowed his little band of self-righteous clones to dominate the polls.
Here’s the lesson. We can’t count on reasonable people automatically getting their butts to the polls because it’s so obvious that Dick Black is insane. Those of us who have seen him need to make sure that they go. Drive them. Call them. Do whatever it takes. Turnout is the only thing between us and actual representation by an adult.