Ballard Gets National Recognition

Greg Ballard was featured on Fox News yesterday. I am thrilled that he got the attention, but I didn’t care for the story that much. They got some details wrong (which always frustrates me). They talk about Peterson going negative and attacking Ballard “months” before the election while it was hardly more than a week. While this seems minor, getting the detail wrong leads to getting the interpretation wrong. The interpretation is that this was a major anti-incumbency election and that Peterson made a mistake by giving Ballard name recognition (which is probably correct) and casting him as “inexperienced” which voters actually want (which is not correct).

This was not an election saying we are tired of “professional politicians.” That issue never came up at all. The reality was that no one believed anything that was coming out of the Peterson campaign, so the “inexperienced” argument did not hold up at all. We actually believed that he does have the necessary experience. This was simply an election on taxes, crime and ethics. Fox News does mention the tax issue, but they do not point out how profound that issue was.

The “lesson learned” according to the “experts” is that incumbents should be wary of the next election and that voters are angry about incumbents.

The “lesson learned” according to me is that government should not overtax, under perform and lie like a dog to its citizens.