Healey’s Oh-So-Knowing Campaign Material

In March 2010, when I liveblogged from a “Meet the Candidates” event, I likened then–lieutenant governor candidate Bob Healey’s speech to “performance art.”  In the past, “Bob Healey’s Campaign Journal – A Guerrilla Guide to the Cerebral Revolution,” the apparently authentic WordPress blog of the now–gubernatorial candidate, might have been amusing.  As it is, it mainly seems out of touch with the condition that Rhode Island is actually in and the difficulty that Rhode Islanders are currently facing.

A post from Saturday is illustrative.  In it, Healey casually explains away all of the criticism against his surprise-attack run as a Moderate as “Fung supporters trying to paint the opposition.”  The possibility he never considers is that he’s wrong — that the people voicing criticism genuinely believe that what he’s doing is disrespectful of the voters and dismissive of Rhode Islanders’ plight.

Consider the paragraph about me:

The Fung campaign has followed a traditional route on this. They have used their Republican tools to create the diversion. Justin Katz, a political commentator with some ability as well as a paid loyalty to right wing (i.e. Republican based media), has been charged with making the Fung argument. Katz is a most able writer with a good grasp on numbers. Still, his employer is well aligned with the Republican stalwarts. The minor lesson here from the traditionalist playbook is that if you are going to throw dirt, get an operative to do it. I personally disagree with this, preferring to throw my own dirt and not care how it looks.

The idea that I’ve been “charged” with a duty as a “Republican tool” is laughable.  In this, Bob joins the partisans and progressives in attempting to dismiss legitimate arguments as mere partisan role playing.  Next, perhaps, he’ll wonder aloud whether the Koch Brothers fund WPRO, leading Matt Allen to ask me onto his show after our conversation in Facebook comments.

In short, I am throwing my own dirt, Bob.  You’re just making stuff up.

If I were to take Healey’s oh-so-knowing approach and draw conclusions about his motivations by looking at who benefits from his actions, I’d observe that his candidacy most substantially benefits the inside interests of Rhode Island.  On the surface level, Healey’s candidacy is a massive surprise hurdle to Allan Fung, who (whatever shock there may be that the mayor of Cranston is — gasp! — a politician) has some strings that can be pulled from outside of the State House power base.

On a deeper level, though, look what Healey’s doing to actual outsiders.  Suddenly, we’re all part of the machine because we aren’t on board with the Cool Moose’s whimsical fling with the Moderate Party.  Suddenly, supporters of this new MoMo wrecking ball are attacking the credibility of organizations whose credibility is important (if not critical) for many causes that they profess to support.

I don’t believe in the Ken Block–revenge conspiracy theory about the MoMos that’s floating around out there.  How does Block benefit, especially if he intends, as he’s stated, to shift his energies to a campaign on behalf of the constitutional convention?  No, the real manipulators behind any conspiracy would have to be the insiders whose grip on Rhode Island gets tighter the more emaciated the state becomes.

Now, I don’t think Healey’s candidacy is another predictable move from the insiders’ playbook… but he might believe that if it were just part of his cerebral exercise.

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