The Runback: Two Governors
One Governor was canonized. The other was demonized. Things look different now.
Welcome to another week of The Runback. Have you been enjoying The Duckpin? Do you have comments or suggestions? Do you want to write for us? Let me know at theduckpin@gmail.com. And please be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Thanks in advance.
Podcast Episode #23
This week we talk with Rob Cataldi, the Founder and Commissioner of the Greater Baltimore Mini-Golf Tour, about the Tour’s history and about the inaugural Maryland State Mini-Golf Championship coming this September to Westminster.
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News and Politics
March 2021 Republican Presidential Power Rankings: Our latest rankings, where competence is important.
Legislation Would Scramble Local Central Committees: HB 335 would prohibit candidates for public office from running local party Central Committees, creating problems for some county-level parties.
Sports
The Dumbest Team Names In Professional Sports: What are the ten most non-sensical names in professional sports?
Shameless Plugs
My latest for The Capital: Maryland Democrats need to quit micromanaging and approve sports betting.
The Monday Thought
Let’s talk about a tale of two Governors.
These Governors represent large states. They have commanded a ton of media coverage over the course of the last year.
The first Governor has kept the COVID-19 pandemic at a manageable level in his state. He has effectively distributed the COVID vaccine across the state, making sure that the most vulnerable were offered the vaccine. He’s been able to keep businesses, for the most part, open and has limited the economic damage done to his state’s economy.
The second Governor had COVID run rampant across his state. Nevertheless, he persisted in making sure people knew that he was on the case, having media availability nearly every day, making sure that the media beast was fed. However, his state saw ridiculous restrictions put in place, statewide restrictions that often did not take into account local situations. He created ridiculous and unenforceable quarantine requirements. His state saw discrimination against religious minorities related to the COVID outbreak. He expressly stated that he did not trust the expertise of health officials during a time when nine state health officials quit. His state was exposed for reporting false numbers throughout the COVID pandemic, underreporting how many people have died in nursing homes across his state thanks to his directives. He had a painting commissioned talking about his state, thanks to his overarching leadership, succeeded. He wrote a book talking about how great he was and announced that his state had “confronted and defeated the virus” at a time when his state had the highest per capita hospitalization rate in the country.
The first Governor was demonized by the media. The second Governor was lionized by the media.
By now, you have no doubt realized that the first governor is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The second governor is New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Despite the fact that he has been accused of actively wanting to kill people by actors, entertainers, the media, and the Democratic Party, Ron DeSantis has been a successful Governor throughout this crisis. The numbers show that Florida has weathered this storm rather well. He’s been making sure that the most vulnerable are receiving COVID vaccines first, and he’s been taking a lot of criticism for it.
Andrew Cuomo, of course, turned out to be the Wizard of Oz; there was nothing behind the curtain. Everything he told New Yorkers was wrong. Everything he told the media was wrong. Every entertaining and member of the media who identified themselves as “Cuomosexuals” were duped. He cooked the books.
And that doesn’t take into account that Andrew Cuomo has a #MeToo problem. Cuomo seems to have sexually harassed a high number of the women he has come into contact with during his time as Governor, including an unusually high number of his female staffers.
Of course, the Democratic establishment and the media want to give Cuomo “due process” in all of this. Heck, even based on his statements on Brett Kavanaugh it stands to reason that Andrew Cuomo thinks Andrew Cuomo should hit the bricks.
It’s almost as if there is a bias in how the media treat Democrats more favorably than Republicans. Let’s give you another example:
It may not be fair. But that’s the way it is in 2021 in America.