Get Over It
People can get very bitter sometimes. I know that's not exactly a ground-breaking statement, but when that bitterness is so visible, you just take a step back and say, "Whoa, THAT is bitter." We've seen several examples this week of people who obviously cannot get over defeats in their lives and it's made them extremely bitter.
The first bit of bitterness came in the form of an extended letter to the editor in Tuesday's Syracuse Post-Standard by Michael Whyland, who was Dan Maffei's campaign director in last year's unsuccessful Congressional run. I have to put emphasis on "unsuccessful" because Mr. Whyland has apparently forgotten that the 2006 election is OVER. Whyland apparently felt the need to take issue with Jim Walsh, who defeated Maffei in November, for holding local "town hall" meetings in recent days, claiming this was something Walsh had never done in 18 years previously and that he's had a sudden "conversion" after the last election.
Whyland then goes back into the same tired talking points that he and Maffei's minions kept repeating throughout the 2006 campaign, about Walsh's votes on the minimum wage and this, that, and the other thing. He concluded by stating that the only reason his candidate lost is the "campaign based on deceit and outright lies" against Maffei. Well, at least that's better than blaming "little old ladies" who counted the votes on Election Day as you did when you demanded your futile recount last November. However, what part of Maffei being only a DNC operative and only moving back here to Syracuse to run for Congress was a LIE? It was the TRUTH. This letter did nothing but SCREAM "bitter". Listen up, Mr. Whyland, either announce that Dan Maffei is going to run again in a 2008 rematch with Walsh (which I predicted here he will do eventually), or SHUT THE HELL UP. You and your message were proven wrong by the voters last November; now you have to deal with it.
And speaking of those who can't get over elections... the 2000 election is back in play once again. For this, you can thank the Academy, as many did last Sunday night at the Oscars. Al Gore won for Best Documentary for the mistitled "An Inconvenient Truth", and Leonardo DiCaprio was practically begging Gore to announce that he was going to run for president in 2008 and save us all. Many on the left who don't want Hillary or Obama because of their negatives (and doesn't that make them sexist/racist, but I digress...) agree that Gore should run in 2008 because now he has been vindicated for getting robbed by that "partisan" Supreme Court in 2000. For many, such as columnist Maureen Dowd (who thinks that name-calling is an acceptable form of political discourse), this vindication has come in the form of Gore winning an Academy Award, being mentioned for a Nobel Prize, and well, everything that's happened in the last 6 years since Bush took office.
I actually predicted a Gore-Hillary "victim-off" in 2002, but I figured it would be in 2004, not this year. Instead, neither ran and the Dems were stuck with John Kerry... *ahem*. Now, with Hollywood quickly writing their checks to Obama, Gore's only real shot is to enter now, and not at the last minute as some predict. The Hollywood money would flow right to Gore the minute he announced, and then it would be on... "I got jobbed by the Supreme Court" vs. "My husband the president had an affair with an intern". Biggest victim gets the nomination and the right to say, "I deserve to be president because I'm a victim."
GIVE ME A BREAK. First of all, the 2000 election is ancient history, and although it seems like many will NEVER get over it, they need to. The 2004 election validated Bush's presidency. You cannot say, "Well if Gore won in 2000, he would have won in 2004," because you don't know who the Republicans would have run in '04, much less what would have happened in the country in the 4 years in between. Furthermore, I don't think Gore's going to run, but I've been wrong before.
Lastly, getting back to local issues, the bonds were sold the other day for the long-awaited, long-delayed Destiny project. There will be shovels in the ground within weeks. While some naysayers like Dick Case, who claimed that Destiny couldn't find a buyer for the bonds because nobody invests in shopping malls anymore, were quietly eating their crow, others chose to go the bitterman route. Cartoonist Frank Cammuso painted a fairy-tale portrait that proclaimed that now that Destiny was getting built, all of Syracuse's problems will instantly go away and we will all live "happily ever after."
No. That's not what we Destiny supporters believe; it's never been what we believe. To make it look like that's the only project we're behind is an insult to the other investors who are, as we speak, readying their own plans to put shovels and steel in the ground downtown. This is, was, and has always been only a part of the resurgence of Syracuse. To poke fun at us simply because what we wanted to happen, what we knew would happen, is actually going to happen just shows the bitterness of those who lost the battle.
To sum it up, I've been on the losing end of a lot of things in my life, and I could have been bitter about a lof of things, but in the end it's just not worth it. You have to move forward, learn your lessons, and get over it all. It would be too all of our benefits if many more people out there could do the same.
The first bit of bitterness came in the form of an extended letter to the editor in Tuesday's Syracuse Post-Standard by Michael Whyland, who was Dan Maffei's campaign director in last year's unsuccessful Congressional run. I have to put emphasis on "unsuccessful" because Mr. Whyland has apparently forgotten that the 2006 election is OVER. Whyland apparently felt the need to take issue with Jim Walsh, who defeated Maffei in November, for holding local "town hall" meetings in recent days, claiming this was something Walsh had never done in 18 years previously and that he's had a sudden "conversion" after the last election.
Whyland then goes back into the same tired talking points that he and Maffei's minions kept repeating throughout the 2006 campaign, about Walsh's votes on the minimum wage and this, that, and the other thing. He concluded by stating that the only reason his candidate lost is the "campaign based on deceit and outright lies" against Maffei. Well, at least that's better than blaming "little old ladies" who counted the votes on Election Day as you did when you demanded your futile recount last November. However, what part of Maffei being only a DNC operative and only moving back here to Syracuse to run for Congress was a LIE? It was the TRUTH. This letter did nothing but SCREAM "bitter". Listen up, Mr. Whyland, either announce that Dan Maffei is going to run again in a 2008 rematch with Walsh (which I predicted here he will do eventually), or SHUT THE HELL UP. You and your message were proven wrong by the voters last November; now you have to deal with it.
And speaking of those who can't get over elections... the 2000 election is back in play once again. For this, you can thank the Academy, as many did last Sunday night at the Oscars. Al Gore won for Best Documentary for the mistitled "An Inconvenient Truth", and Leonardo DiCaprio was practically begging Gore to announce that he was going to run for president in 2008 and save us all. Many on the left who don't want Hillary or Obama because of their negatives (and doesn't that make them sexist/racist, but I digress...) agree that Gore should run in 2008 because now he has been vindicated for getting robbed by that "partisan" Supreme Court in 2000. For many, such as columnist Maureen Dowd (who thinks that name-calling is an acceptable form of political discourse), this vindication has come in the form of Gore winning an Academy Award, being mentioned for a Nobel Prize, and well, everything that's happened in the last 6 years since Bush took office.
I actually predicted a Gore-Hillary "victim-off" in 2002, but I figured it would be in 2004, not this year. Instead, neither ran and the Dems were stuck with John Kerry... *ahem*. Now, with Hollywood quickly writing their checks to Obama, Gore's only real shot is to enter now, and not at the last minute as some predict. The Hollywood money would flow right to Gore the minute he announced, and then it would be on... "I got jobbed by the Supreme Court" vs. "My husband the president had an affair with an intern". Biggest victim gets the nomination and the right to say, "I deserve to be president because I'm a victim."
GIVE ME A BREAK. First of all, the 2000 election is ancient history, and although it seems like many will NEVER get over it, they need to. The 2004 election validated Bush's presidency. You cannot say, "Well if Gore won in 2000, he would have won in 2004," because you don't know who the Republicans would have run in '04, much less what would have happened in the country in the 4 years in between. Furthermore, I don't think Gore's going to run, but I've been wrong before.
Lastly, getting back to local issues, the bonds were sold the other day for the long-awaited, long-delayed Destiny project. There will be shovels in the ground within weeks. While some naysayers like Dick Case, who claimed that Destiny couldn't find a buyer for the bonds because nobody invests in shopping malls anymore, were quietly eating their crow, others chose to go the bitterman route. Cartoonist Frank Cammuso painted a fairy-tale portrait that proclaimed that now that Destiny was getting built, all of Syracuse's problems will instantly go away and we will all live "happily ever after."
No. That's not what we Destiny supporters believe; it's never been what we believe. To make it look like that's the only project we're behind is an insult to the other investors who are, as we speak, readying their own plans to put shovels and steel in the ground downtown. This is, was, and has always been only a part of the resurgence of Syracuse. To poke fun at us simply because what we wanted to happen, what we knew would happen, is actually going to happen just shows the bitterness of those who lost the battle.
To sum it up, I've been on the losing end of a lot of things in my life, and I could have been bitter about a lof of things, but in the end it's just not worth it. You have to move forward, learn your lessons, and get over it all. It would be too all of our benefits if many more people out there could do the same.
Labels: bitterness, politics
posted by Dave | 5:54 PM
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