It struck me that a couple of noteworthy things happend this week. So I figured that it's worth listing them out. These are not so much the largest events of the week so much as they are the must unexpected.
Bob Schaffer is the biggest one, but not in the way you are probably expecting.
Ok, there is no way I would ever vote for Schaffer - his politics is way to the right. Neither did I expect him to be crystal clean, he's a human being.
But I have to say, I am very surprised and saddened by two things from the CNMI story. First the base corruption and the indifference to the truly horrible suffering of other human beings. And second, the rank incompetence of bringing up the story himself.
Bob Schaffer is a lot less of a person than I thought he was, both morally and competence-wise. Very surprising.
Second big surprise is a very positive one. The one about Ritter's campaign spending being improper.
Ritter stepped up, immediately covered it by taking out a loan on his house (the banks are still loaning money???), taking full responsibility, and getting an independent audit.
We don't expect perfection and his response to this shows incredible integrity on his part. I may not always agree with Ritter but I am very proud of him.
Third pleasant surprise is Betsy Markey's fundraising numbers. She clearly is raising the money needed to have a change against MM (do not spell out her full name if small children might see it).
CD-4 is the one house seat we have a real chance at. Betsy looks like a contender. Really good news.
Fourth is Michelle Obama on the Colbert Report. As we ramp up to the general election I think she is going to be a powerful advantage for Barack. She exudes class from every pore of her being while also coming across as very grounded and real.
There is amazing power in a presidental candidate's wife who can go on the Colbert Report and handle it perfectly. She may very well be the next Jackie-O and a lot of the Republican women in America will find that very compelling.
Fifth is the CD-2 fundraising numbers. Jared's donation numbers are worrisomely low - much lower than I expected. At the same time Will's numbers are in 1st place and much higher than expected.
This race is very weird. Money tends to chase the winner but Will's name recognition is so low that he can't be viewed as the front runner.
Joan's spending money almost as fast as Jared, yet we don't see anything. As they say in Hollywood, you don't see the budget on the screen.
And Jared has dropped Wanda (which I think was necessary) but no new campaign manager yet - which is not good. But Jared's approach to campaigning is very different from the normal so he remains a very strong wildcard.
In other words, anyone who tells you what the vote will be for CD-2 is full of it.
