Fatigue

I had coffee with my good friend and former City Attorney Bob White this morning.  We love talking politics.  Today we centered on the "fatigue" factor in politics.  People do get fatigued with elected officials.  Think Marty Chavez.  Think about my career.  Think about Governor Richardson.  And in some respects think about any incumbent this year.  People are tired of this cast of players.  People are pissed off at the state of things.  Voila!  The Tea Party fringe exudes frustration and gets the media talking about them.  The Democrats and what is left of a reasonable republican party minority don't even recognize the frustration and don't talk about it and you end up with a lot of otherwise good elected officials being shown the door.  Many of those who replace them will be really scary.

That is a reason that Diane Denish is having a hard race.  The media connect her with Richardson and the fatigue attaches to her.  Her campaign team has not figured out a way, so far, of getting her energy out.  I can tell you I have known her for years and she is her own person.

Part of this fatigue is due to a corporate influenced media.  I feel the oil and gas industry influences the Albuquerque Journal to beat up on Denish because she is concerned about climate change. And so you get stories that try to turn her into a bad person for pursuing funding for childhood education.  Can you believe it?  Making  her seem corrupt for doing something so admirable?  How does this happen at the Journal?  And people ask why I want to stop my subscription.  I guess I am fatigued with that once okay newspaper.