Once again, we have candidates answering the Daily Camera's what 3 things do you want on a deserted island question. And in the case of the Carlisle - Heath Smackdown, we have, uh... , it's not good.
The question is: "If you were stranded on a deserted island, what three things would you want with you?"
Cindy Carlisle : Lots of water, a solar-powered laptop and a surf-fishing rig for long casts with line kites beyond the breakers.
Grade C : Ok, Cindy is going to survive on the island, and have something to do. Good thing as she's never going to be rescued. As to the solar powered laptop, playing solitaire is going to get real old after the first couple of years...
Rollie Heath : Solar powered cell phone, flares and a good book.
Grade F : Ok Rollie, you have a cell phone that won't lose power. What are you going to do with it. It's a deserted island - there's no cell towers. It's like owning the first fax machine ever made - it's useless. Also, with no food, no water, and no way to get any, you're going to die very quickly. On the good news side, you only need 1 good book as you won't last long enough to read the second.
Cindy's answer is ok, but she definitely thought about how to best live with a tough problem rather than how to eliminate it. That's like drilling for more oil and increasing auto gas mileage rather than finding a way to use something other than oil to power cars.
But Cindy's answer is fantastic compared to Rollie's. One of Rollie's 3 choices is useless. And the other two basically assume if he sits there, he will be rescued in a couple of days (I assume the flares are to attract a ship or plane before he dies of thirst). Doing something useless and waiting for someone else to solve the problem is not being effective.
I think this answer does illuminate what we get with each candidate. The fact that it's non-political and different gives us a picture to each candidates problem solving approach. With Cindy she won't look to eliminate a problem, but she will look to craft an effective way to handle it.
With Rollie we get... nothing useful.
