Byzantium's Shores: chronicling the misadventures of an overalls-clad hippie

Memo to Tom Golisano:

Stunts like this do not lend credence to you as a man of Gubernatorial timber. I don't much care whether or not you run, or if it inconveniences the Democrats in New York -- they're the ones who nominated a lackluster candidate and watched as he ran a half-assed campaign against a popular and generally decent Republican governor, after all -- but lord, this "I've got a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! and that BIG ANNOUNCEMENT is: See you on Tuesday!" stuff is just plain lame. It's almost as bad as Perot's infamous "I'm dropping out because George Bush had his former CIA minions try to disrupt my daughter's wedding" bit from 1992.

And speaking of Golisano, I have to note that I generally find "independent" candidates dull and uninteresting. That Golisano built a company in New York that generated a good number of jobs is a laudable accomplishment, but I'm tired of the standard "Independent Businessman Candidate" claim: I created jobs, so I'm the right choice for Governor / President / Congressman / Coroner / Whatever. So your company did well; that's all well and good. But that's not enough: I need to see some evidence that you're also an expert on the public policy needed to create jobs. It's a different animal, so stop telling me that one equals the other. I'd also be glad to see one of these "independents" actually admit after the election that they got clobbered, and that running was basically a waste of time. The whole meme of "I got three percent of the vote, but that's a victory because it sends a clear message that we don't want business as usual!" is really rather tiresome. It's the political equivalent of the NFL-coach-on-a-rebuilding-team: "Yeah, we lost 44-3, but we showed some improvement on special teams and our punter had a career day." I'd like, just once, to see the political equivalent of Jim Mora after a loss (when Mora would occasionally shout "We SUCK!" into the microphone at the post-game press conference).

I'm also noticing more of those political signs -- the ones that show up on busy street-corners, or in peoples' yards -- that don't even mention what office the candidate named on the sign is running for. This is just one more indicator that politics is about branding. Pataki is no longer a candidate for Governor, but a product. His signs consist of his name and, in smaller print at the bottom, the URL of his website. Not "Pataki for Governor", not "Re-elect Governor Pataki", not even "Four more years". Just "Pataki". We've reduced politics to advertising shorthand.