Lenny Curry, All sizzle no meat!

[Cheshire Cat]

Here is todays Folio article about the candidates for mayor.  The writer of this article gets it about politics as well as who is selling an agenda and who is selling themselves.  Here is a small segment of what is a great read. Click the link below for the full story.

And then there is Lenny Curry. Originally, I liked what I saw from Curry's brand managers. He is a feel-good candidate with a beautiful family, and he seems nice. But then I took a deeper look. The only thing that came up was strict Republican rhetoric and cronyism with Ted Cruz, Rick Perry, Rick Scott and those who stand on the far right of the spectrum. He is a politician's politician. I didn't see any reputation as someone who has dealt with actual issues in Jacksonville. Instead, he has been circling the state making sure mostly white, male conservatives get elected.

I could not find one specific thing Lenny Curry plans to do to make Jacksonville better. When asked, he frequently comments about studying the problem or forming commissions or seeking audits before making a decision. Heck, he's seeking the highest office in Jacksonville and can't even get the bridge on his logo right. Those bridges are a big part of Jacksonville, as they are collectively crossed about a million times a day.

Team Curry's negative ads sell fear over function. Apparently, it is solely the current mayor's fault that the police force is smaller, and a few more officers across Jacksonville's 800-plus square miles might deter murder and rape. Neither of these crimes is the kind generally deterred by any number of officers, and the budget is more complicated than that, but fear trumps logic when it comes to political branding.

Since I couldn't find what he stood for on TV or the Internet, I checked Curry's Twitter account, as that is as close to a "dear diary" as we all have these days. I finally found a Jacksonville issue he was clear about: He really stood for getting Tim Tebow to the Jaguars even after GM Dave Caldwell said no. He also loved taking photos with players and coaches and posting them with or without an actual endorsement. He once claimed that the Democrats were trying to "enslave" his America. He said "Boom" a lot. Voter suppression was compared to drunk driving, in that sometimes the sober are inconvenienced, but the analogy was to get the "drunks" off the road even if a few people can't vote in any given election.

Curry seemed to believe that President Obama has never made a correct decision and is unfit personally and professionally. Overall, he liked to use the words "grace" and "peace," though his angst for all things non-GOP was really neither graceful nor peaceful. 
I didn't see a single opinion on gay marriage, gun violence, bullying, local education reform, 
the Downtown revitalization plan or anything that resembled a local issue.

There's an old adage about the voting public, that it doesn't care about the steak as much as its sizzle. The steak is reputation. It is why we choose one restaurant over another. It's the difference between a five-star meal and fast food. The sizzle may certainly turn heads, but if the steak itself is terrible, it will be sent back no matter how exciting it sounded coming to the table.

Click link for full article: http://folioweekly.com/THE-CASE-AGAINST-LENNY-CURRY,12199

[Snaketoz]

The funniest moment of the mayor's race so far has to be the endorsement of Curry by that mental giant from Texas, Rick Perry.  He said something along the lines of, "if you like Rick Scott, you'll love Lenny Curry.  They're like tow peas in a pod."  Not only scary, but funny at the same time.  Being endorsed for mayor by Rick Perry just doesn't seem right.