Associated Press political writer Glen Johnson makes a compelling case that Chris Gabrieli’s campaign, thus far, has an “unbearable lightness of being” quality in this Boston.com story.
BOSTON –Chris Gabrieli entered the 2006 governor’s race promising to be a different kind of candidate, a non-politician focused on bottom-line results.
Those who didn’t hear it at his announcement ceremony simply had to watch one of the more than $2.5 million worth of TV ads he bought during the ensuing weeks.
Since then, though, close listeners may have detected the strains of an old-school politician rather than a private-sector reformer. There’s been backroom deal-making, big money and a tepidness about committing to ironclad positions.
Chris Gabrieli’s cautious approach: tastes great or less filling? You decide.
This “analysis” struck me as a little lame itself. Gee, let’s pick a candidate, point out a couple of issues where the answers were considered light on substance or contradictory to earlier views, write it up and publish it. This template could be used on any of the candidates so far, as they’ve all been fairly vague on the issues and have offered fairly broad visions or proposals. The simple reason? Nobody in the real world is paying attention to the race at this point, which will all change come Labor Day. The substance will start to emerge the closer we get to September. This is no slam on any candidate, it’s just the way it is.
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What I found truly amusing about this AP piece is that it pokes at Gabrieli’s independent non-politician image, when all the other candidates are also trying to portray themselves as independent outsider types. Again, a similar article could’ve been written about any of them.
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Indeed, the only candidate in any race that has been detail-specific about their positions has been Tim Murray, who has issued a series of thoughtful position papers over the last few months.