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Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Have The People Already Decided?




Last night the Wicomico Neighborhood Congress held a forum at Wor-Wic and quite frankly I felt very sorry for each and every one of the candidates. I'd say there were about 12 people in attendance that were citizens and the other 12 were either related to the congress or friends of a particular candidate.

That being said, you have to wonder, are the races already over. Have people already decided who they're going to vote for, therefore there's no need to listen to what each candidate has to say. On the flip side of the coin, perhaps this could mean that voter turn out at the polls will stink this year.

There are a lot of questions and variables, so what exactly did you miss last night. Not much at all. The questions seemed to be pretty similar to what we already asked in candidate interviews. Mind you, I didn't stick around until the end but from what I did see, Bob Culver absolutely spanked Cowell's answers, one after the other. Culver proved Cowell had absolutely NO CLUE what he was talking about and even though Cowell made each answer sound as if he had actually researched it, Culver politely corrected him immediately following and Cowell tried to make a joke out of it.

Matt Holloway excelled in this forum as well. I spoke to a few of the people that attended and they agreed. This young man certainly has a strong future in Wicomico County politics. All in all Folks, you didn't miss much. The big problem with these forums are as follows. They ask a question and they expect all 8 candidates to answer it. The problem is, once you get past the third or fourth candidate, everyone has the same answer and or they seem to be protected, (even if they had no clue) for the answer.

Eight candidates, 2 minute answers, that's 16 minutes taken up with there for one question with pretty much all the same answers. The only creative answers, (imho) was Holloway and Culver. They did their homework and even 2 of the candidates who have already served Wicomico County for the past 4 years didn't seem to offer much.

A good moderator, (no disrespect) would have challenged each candidates answer to liven things up a bit. Hopefully the congress has learned from this experience. One thing is for sure, Salisbury News will hold a forum for the City Elections in March. Someone has to take the bull by the horns and do this right.

Crisfield, (by the way) had around 200 people in attendance at their forum last night. Clearly people are still undecided down there.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

I truly believe in this time of worrying about crime, housing, mortgages, jobs, bills and other stress-inducing problems that most people feel the system is broke beyond repair and feel a sense of helplessness so acute that they just don't care anymore. I believe that you were correct in saying we will have low voter turn out. Apathy and anger have finally reached the tipping point.

There are probably no more than 200-300 "activists" in Wicomico County. Other than them, what else have you got? No matter what the results of this election - nothing will change. NOTHING. And the people know it, too.

Anonymous said...

I went in late. But was leaning toward Cowall. I left voting for Culver.

Anonymous said...

Americans have become purely apathetic.

We no longer believe we have any power what-so-ever. We cannot affect change or control over our lives.

Our government is on auto-pilot and nothing we do can make a difference.

Anonymous said...

Elections and government is for corporations who have been given the status of "people".

Corporations are considered equal to people.

Since corporations have tremendous wealth compared to people, they get to decide how our government works and who makes up our congress at Federal level, and State level.

Anonymous said...

Many of us have decided to refrain from participation in this election cycle.

Anonymous said...

dude?! on a monday? dont they know football is on? should we expect a lack of foresight once they get in office too?

J.Albero said...

DUDE, there was football going on in Crisfield where they had over 200 people attend. Perhaps you should stop smoking that crap and get back to the real world.

Anonymous said...

Football, baseball, American idol, who can dance better than the next guy / gal?

It is circus and bread. Distract the citizens with mindless unimportant events and media stories so they don't realize what is happening.

America is a shell of the country it once was. Our citizens are stupid, lazy, and ignorant of what our government does abroad or for that matter, what it does right here to us.

Anonymous said...

I agree with the first commenter. A lot of people feel like it doesn't matter what they do any more.

Also, I find most of these forums don't have good questions because the people asking them don't have enough knowledge about the issues they are asking about!

With most of the forums not giving you any more about the candidates than the usual vague stuff, it seems like a waste of time to go.

Anonymous said...

People may feel like they don't have a say in anything anymore, BUT...unless you vote you don't have the privilege to complain about who's running things either.

Anonymous said...

dave macleod was glad no one showed up. he was up way past his bedtime!

Anonymous said...

12:16
bollocks!

I can and will complain about the state of this Country - and you nor anyone else will tell me I can't. I was born here. I was not an item that was purchased by the elite of this country or the world.

I am a human being and I can and will complain about how others in power are treating those of us who are victims of their taxation slavery.

Furthermore, my freedom was given to me by my Creator and was guaranteed to me by his Son - Jesus Christ.

Freedom is absolutely and positively free. My free will is a gift of my Creator.

This evil government and its military police are an affront to my free will. I have freedom os speech because I have vocal chords. Period. I speak. I breathe. I eat. I dream.

All without the graciousness of this evil government. It does not own me and it will not control my spirit. It may have dominion over my flesh and blood, but only for as long as my Savior and Lord allows it. I say this, every hair on every head of the Congress is numbered. They serve their father - Satan.

Anonymous said...

Folks it is REAL SIMPLE!!! Holloway and Culver are who you want. Cowall is a rude arrogant clueless man. Just don't be fooled by anything he says cause he probably don't know anyway.

Anonymous said...

12:16 is absolutely right. If you don’t vote, don’t complain!

And 10:53, normally I would see your point but it was tenn vs jacksonville, gimme a break.

Anonymous said...

So many of you posters will deserver what you get out of this election, if you "choose to not participate". That person probably thought he or she was being cute, or cool. What really showed was ignorance.
There are still a couple of weeks left. If you don't know what's going on, find out. If you read this blog you can't be completely ignorant, Joe has put a lot of work into getting the candidates and their issues in front of the public.
If you don't know and don't care, just don't vote! Yes, and you'll have become part of the biggest problem we have in our country today (outside of Washington).
Do your civic duty, get informed and then vote. Don't vote as someone else tells you to, learn who the candidates are and what they stand for; get informed yourself; use your own brain.
There are more real choices in this election than we've had in decades. It may well be our last chance.

lmclain said...

I vote in every election. I see it this way (and my opinion was validated in the article when it described the "pat" answers) --- I have to look very hard to find a politician who has a firm stand on anything. They not only say what they think you want to hear, they are are afraid of saying anything offensive and as far as I'm concerned, some offensive things need to BE said...our country is in bad shape and we better start hurting some people's feelings (as in "the gravy train is OVER, etc). If you just READ the answers without knowing who said them, it is VERY difficult to discern the messenger. Apathy? Maybe. Disgust? More likely. We need some REAL leaders, not some made-for-Oprah puppets mouthing standard approved-by-pollsters lines.....

Anonymous said...

12:41 PM
Absolutely. I couldn't agree more.