Down The Sewer Pipe – Politically Speaking

When running for public office the candidate often makes wide ranging promises. Sometimes these promises are pie in the sky things, not doable in any since. As time goes on the new office holder, assuming he candidate has won the election, will be confronted with the fact that what they said bares no relationship to what they are actually doing.

The fix for this is to be as vague as possible when campaigning, something the local press will take issue with the candidate if the candidate wins the election, or make no promises at all. Not always possible given the state of American politicism . It is something to be aware of, especially if previous office holders have made the same promise that they were not able to deliver on.

Years ago, in Albany Oregon, there was a papermill that was next to a chemical plant. The smell was horrible. Everyone blames the papermill for the smell, you knew miles in advance that the papermill was up the road. From Interstate 5 the chemical plant was hidden from view by the papermill.

I have lost count of the number of candidates for Oregon state Governor, some of whom won their elections, that promised to “fix the papermill and end the smell”. Turns out the governor’s elect couldn’t do a thing about the smell at all. This cycle went on for a lot of years

At one point the papermill launched an investigation of their own. Turns out the papermill, with certificates of operation from the state, did not have a smell problem at all. The chemical plant however did, and had, for years been polluting the air with the stench most foul. The chemical plant fixed the problem at their plant, and the problem has been solved ever since.

The moral here, is to promise only what you can deliver.