Monday, March 7, 2011

Anybody But Tennant

Northern West Virginia has had its eight-year-long moment in the sun with one of its own as governor of the state. But Joe Manchin was always going to move into Robert Byrd's seat and the death of the longtime Senator prior to Manchin's term expiration made that succession a fait accompli.

The calling of a special election brought no fewer than 12 candidates into the frame including fellow Northerner Natalie Tennant. Still trading on her in-state fame as WVU's first female Mountaineer mascot, Tennant bided her time as a local TV broadcaster until a statewide office (job description and duties unimportant) for which she could run came open. Suddenly Tennant was WV Secretary of State and she luxuriated in visits to schools and Rotary lunches along with delivering the obligatory newspaper quotes about 'the democratic process' on Election Day.

Tennant is the classic case of the overgrown teacher's pet, kissing backsides and promoting herself shamelessly round the clock. She has taken simple name recognition devoid of any real-world accomplishment (unless you regard pogo-jumping in buckskins as accomplishment) to staggering heights. Her campaigns, slogans and speeches are embarrassingly banal and derivative even for a banal and derivative endeavor like politics. She and her sycophants advertise her as a 'game-changer' despite a lifetime of assiduosly avoiding any sort of controversy that might result from expressing deep thought or a strong position on any issue. Her experience in any industry (save reading a TelePrompTer) is nil.

In short, Tennant is the worst sort of professional politician i.e. one who views campaigns and elections strictly as an ego trip. She wants the office but not the job and is obviously convinced that any serious issue she might encounter can be jawboned into submission. As we've seen with one Barack Obama, Student Council types make horrible chief executives. Let us hope that West Virginians can apply this lesson to the current governor's race.