Sutton on WARF (sounds like what i do after a long night drinking or disturbing star trek fan fiction)

First of all for those of you who don't know 1350 WARF is our local Air America/Liberal station which, in an ironic twist, is owned by conservative communication magnate Clear Channel. They've got Al Franken in the afternoon's and a host of other great radio personalities, but I just find it odd that the people who own WTAM (conservative radio land ohio, oh and Triv is a moron)

So, it is possible i was the only person to hear Betty Suttons interview on 1350 last thursday with the wonderfully senile old codger Joe Finan.

All in all it was a soft ball interview that revolved around Finan hitting on Ms. Sutton (which she deflected well), Finan making fun of Ms. Cafaro, and Sutton getting questions that established her personality in a positive light. One caller chimed in (probably the only other person listening to Finan, cause come on, he's gettin a little.... ok ALOT, old) and asked some questions that were, if not scripted, the perfect questions to ask a candidate to make them sound good. While I had fun listening there was not much in the way of substance, despite the fact that Mrs. Sutton tried on several occasions to roll out here anti-corruption plan.

Well, between that and the needle in the haystack article in the ABJ Sutton is finally starting to get her voice and her name out there. Hopefully its not to little to late for her campaign.

Tom Sawyer and the Fine Art of Sillyness:

Quick aside: First post in awhile, still reeling from a bloggers bracket slaughter (grats to the winner though!) and the arrival of a new little bundle to the family!! So, posting may be spotty over the next few weeks as we here at the Walk Back homestead acclimate to our new, and frankly beautiful, member.

Ok on to the stuff. A bunch of blogs have posted on the negatives of many a candidate. And more interestingly many an anonymous commentor has come to the defense of a few of them. In this spirit I've been trying and trying to think of a reason someone would come to the defense of Tom Sawyer (as defense of him as been so sparse on the net these day). When lo and behold he comes out in response to Betty Sutton in the ABJ by saying that her comments are bullshit! HOSANAH and ROCK!!! When we finally get a quote by him on a substantial issue his response is, esentially, bite me you hoser. Now, this is a candidate we can get behind, subtantive issue based debate be damned, Mr. Sawyer is getting his hands (and mouth) dirty with a response only one step removed from Nuh-uh. In his last campaign he had image consultants and a bank roll a mile long and some kid from the valley was able to school him. And now, he is seemingly operating from his house, with little budget, no staff, and tons of free press. Why then is he poised to win? The only answer i can come up with is name recognition.

However, in rebuttle to the mainstream oppion that he is the front runner i say this?
-Have you or anyone you know gotten a mailing?
-A robo call?
-A person at your door?
-Seen a web site?
-Seen chatter on the blogs supporting him?
-Seen any endorsements other than newspapers?
-Seen any evidence of a campaign infrastructure at all?

If so let me know! I can't shake the feeling that this guy is a paper tiger. With Sutton and Cafaro having far more union support and thus more known votes in their pocket from the start the question must be asked, where is Sawyer in the race really? Do we know if the polls have been sampling likely voters or registered voters? And in that event did they ask if the respondant was planning to vote in the primary (as most "regular" voters don't ever bother)? This is stuff we bloggers must know if our well and not so well informed political discussions are to have any merit. Ok, while that be going a bit to far, i bloody need to know something the silence is starting to become deafining.

The Bottom Line: While i could be entirely wrong (see bloggers bracket above), It just seems that Sawyer is hot air with no backing, all flash and no substance. I just think it takes more than buzz to win an election.