Went to a Tom Wolf for Governor of PA meeting
at the home of some wonderful people I know.
He's a progressive businessman from York, PA who served in the Rendell Administration - because, he likes to say, that he's the only Democrat from York county who owns a tie. Pretty good line...
I won't bother you with the details of his speech BUT I will tell you that for my (substantial (for me)) check which I handed his aide personally, I gave him two pieces of advice:
1. Under no circumstances denigrate the political machinations of Pennsylvania in the manner in which he did: it will become his 47% moment. All someone has to do is record him saying that with an iPhone and it's all over.
2. He went into the Peace Corps when he was 19, putting his studies at Dartmouth on hiatus. He accentuated this aspect of his life and how he worked in India assisting them in increasing their rice production. Of course, in that era, Peace Corps and Draft Dodging were synonymous and he should never forget what state he's campaigning in. In addition, many minority voters or their brothers or sons or cousins would have had to have been drafted because they weren't in college and they might not be so interested or appreciative of his duty assignment, so to speak. I mentioned that he probably needs to frame his experience in a context which would prevent "misinterpretation" (read: Rethug smear tactics) He started explaining the complex nature of his draft status and we are contemporaries and I just held up my hand and said, "I believe you. But as they say, if you have to explain, it means you're losing. No one is going to listen to this - the Republicans will tar and feather you if you don't present this well.
Surprisingly, he actually took me seriously and lost that "Campaigning Look" that these guys and gals have and you could tell that he was concerned. He's probably a good guy as far as this stuff goes and I will continue to work for him. You can expect a big advertising blitz coming soon - he's self-funded to the tune of about 2/3 of his initial budget.
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