HA! No, I’m not talking about Jane Fernandes. (For the record, Dr. Fernandes does say hi.) I’m talking about Linda Cropp, one of the two leading candidates angling to become D.C.’s next mayor.
A bunch of friends and I were at Ben’s Chili Bowl last night, and there was some sort of “Meet Linda!” event going on in the back room all the way at the end of the restaurant. Throngs of people wearing lipstick-red Cropp stickers were packing themselves into that room. The cheerfulness of the Cropp-supporters were positively infectious; many looked up (or more accurately, down) with adoration at their hopeful future mayor, who was clad in a lilac-colored power suit.
Then they shut themselves off in that back room. Which was fine with us sitting out in the front room, because we wanted to eat’n'chat anyway, not go to a mayoral event. I started thinking, wouldn’t it be nice if Linda, on her way out after the event, stopped by our table and said hello? I mean, we’re a table with six deaf people signing furiously; surely it’d be a good idea to consider reaching out to our poor, disadvantaged, disabled community, right?
Only she didn’t. She left the back-room event with three or four other Croppfans packed tightly around her, touching all over her. In fact, it looked like Cropp was a little sick and they were helping her to the hospital. Perhaps last night’s chili was a little too potent? But today’s Post makes no mention of an ill Linda, so I’m assuming she was perfectly healthy.
So why didn’t she stop by our table? I’m not even sure she saw us anyway. But it’d have been nice if she could have roamed around the restaurant a little, meeting the common people eating their chili dogs and fries, instead of zooming out from the back room as if the rest of Ben’s Chili Bowl, their employees, and their patrons didn’t exist. That just turned me off a little.
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I am rooting for Marie John as the next DC mayor! She is a problem solver and real leader.
From what I spend considerable time with Marie John and other mayoral candidates. Marie John would be a real logical choice for leading DC in pragmatic and humanistic.
I do have an question of whether Marie John will be another Sharon Pratt Kelly or not.
Kelly, the former PEPCO executive ran DC city government disastarously as an one-term mayor in early 90s. She was accustomed to the private sector leadership, not the mechanism of city government.
Marie John is a realist like me. She know what to do and solve problems.
I attended other mayoral candidates’ fundraising parties like Fenty’s. I was not really impressed at all about Fenty.
We need to elect the real leader, not the political opporuntist like Adrian Fenty. Linda Cropp usually engage in reactive leadership like George W. Bush. The establishment and sizeable number of voters seem pulling the lever for Cropp.
The sole question is “Who will run for the Republican ticket? David Catina?? As what some people speculate about Catina’s last-minute mayoral candidate.
I will talk with my good friend, Tom Sherwood of the WRC-4 TV about the possibility of Catina mayoral candidacy.
I am a registered independent myself. I am no fan of David Catina anyway. He is no leader! Catina would be a real good pit bull on DC government spendings, but kidna hyprocritical himself on several issues and conflict of interests involving his lover on the DC General Hosptial board (in exchange for profit by okaying the closure of only-city hosptial).
Robert L. Mason (RLM)
Aren’t you giving her a double standard?
You’re basically saying that you would have liked to meet her, but didn’t want make the effort to go over her table. And you were perfectly happy with not being caught up in the mayoral choas simply by being focused on your dinner and friends. Maybe she was trying to respect that too?
I did think about that — should I go up to her? But it comes down to the fact that she needs my vote a lot more than I needed to talk to her.
I do have an expectation that if I’m in a restaurant like Ben’s Chili Bowl and there’s a mayoral candidate roaming around, I should get a visit from her/him. I mean, that’s part of campaigning. It’s such a small restaurant, too–would have hardly taken more than five minutes to visit each table and say hello. She IS behind in the polls, after all.
I was really hoping, too, that she’d notice us being all deaf and maybe attempt to reach out a little?
Just curious…
If she did stop at your table to say hi, maybe engage in a little light chat, would that leave you thinking that she was truly trying to connect with a few citizens, or simply “reaching out to our poor, disadvantaged, disabled community”?
Adam is absolutely right about candidates for public office ought to woo and sway the potential voters, not voters themselves. Until voters are brownnosing for the future office jobs.
RLM
Why would I want any candidate bother me while I am eating? I wouldn’t go from table to table bothering the patrons trying to woo them.
That would be a seasonal life in the city for you to hobnob and interact with political candidate(s).
You could simply say “No thanks!” or “I am not interested” or “I am not living in the city” with smile.
Several political candidates were very grateful to me when I said “Oops, I am not living in the city” as a nice way to excuse myself.
Most if not all the members of the DC Council and the DC School Board have kids in private schools. Why are they opposed to school vounchers and charter schools then? Really hypncrite. So do the majority of liberal Democrats in Congress.
Could you provide any concrete evidence about the members of the DC Council and School Board sending their offsprings to the private school?
I know that Phil Mendelson, the hard-working DC Council member, send his own kid to the public school. I assume that Adrian Fenty, the mayoral wannabe, do the same thing.
I dunno know about Kathy Patterson, the chairperson of the Education committee.
The recent federal studies of charter and public schools. The students from public schools do very well in basic subjects - reading, math and science than students of charter schools.
Charter schools are purely a fad anyway. Those schools are somewhat a joke. Some charter schools are worthy enrolling.
RLM
More people begin to recognize Marie John. She kinda was surprised that the business community were not behind her mayoral campaign.
Perhaps Marie John could pull the upset victory. Who knows? So Fenty and Cropp could shut up themselves.